Tales of Apple Scratch: The rise of the Queen

Chapters

Prologue: Night visit in the Crystal Cells
The girl from the Slums of Maredrid
The Concubine of the Sultan of Nadira
The girl inside the chrysalis
On the road to Maredrid
Finally back home
The Istalloñan Issue
The Girl's search comes to an end...
The Queen Rises

Prologue: Night visit in the Crystal Cells

Canterlot Castle, a couple of weeks after the Royal Wedding, ...

Cadence rolled once again in her husband-free double-bed. Her peace of mind has been avoiding her since Shining had come late to dinner earlier. It wasn’t his tardiness that was preventing her from sleeping, considering that Shining being late for dinner had happened a lot ever since they came back from their honeymoon: the Captain of the Royal Guard had a lot of catching up to do with his paperwork. That wasn’t the reason why the young Princess couldn't find sleep that night.

The reason was who her husband had talked about when he arrived in the dining room, his handsome face twisted in anger. Fuming, and muttering in his proverbial beard, Shining barely spared Cadence a look when he sat on the chair next to her. The other two persons in the room, namely Cadence’s adoptive aunts, Princesses Luna and Celestia, quickly asked their Captain what was wrong.

“Our prisoner has been rather aggressive because of the guards who brought her dinner,” Shining had told with a sour frown, instantly making Cadence as tense as a bow string while her aunts had blinked in surprise.

“That’s strange” Luna had stated in an even tone. “She’s been rather calm since I brought her back from the ‘’Moon’’,” she had added calmly.

“Did she explain herself?” Celestia asked with curiosity.

“Apparently, she demanded Sentry to give some information about her captain’s state,” Shining had explained. “She didn’t believe him when he said he didn’t have any…”

“And?” Celestia asked when Shining paused his tale.

“...And he told her that if she wanted to know, she’d have to ask me,”

“Then, what took you so long?” Luna asked slowly, with narrowed eyes.

“Well, she became quite crossed with me after I told her I didn’t have anything to tell her about Locust,” Shining said in annoyance, earning displeased, narrowed eyes from the two immortal Princesses. “She kept shouting, and throwing her food at me after trying to claw my face…. I had her moved to the Crystal cells… Hopefully that would calm her down.”

“It would have been easier to simply tell her about Vigil Locust’s current state, Captain,” Luna had commented in a slightly disapproving tone. “Considering you’re perfectly aware of how your former adversary is doing…”

Shining had blinked in shock when he had seen Celestia nodding softly at her sister’s words. That hadn’t done any good to his already sore mood.

“May I remind you of what she did not a month ago?!” Shining snapped angrily. “She planned on getting rid of both of you while probably torturing the girls!”

“And, may I remind you that she failed at her coup, and is our prisoner now?” Celestia asked back slowly. “If she wanted to know how her second in command is doing, you should have just told her.”

“It would have saved you a lot of trouble,” Luna had commented slowly as she caught Cadence’s unease, and how pale the young princess had gotten when they just mentioned her. “Since we can’t change the past, let’s not dwell on it, and let’s finish our dinner.”

Cadence had quickly agreed with her star-haired aunt with a vigorous nod, only to be imitated by her other aunt, albeit not as vigorously. Her husband, on the other hand, hadn’t agreed at all on the closing of the matter.

“So, that’s what we will do with her?” Shining asked, his face showing clearly his anger at his rulers. “Forget all the harm she has done, and forgive her?”

“That was not what we’re implying, Captain,” Luna replied cooly. “We won’t forget what she tried here, nor will we ever forgive her for it! But not forgiving her doesn’t allow us to be pointlessly cruel for no reason!”

“This isn’t pointless cruelty!” Shining argued strongly, vigorously standing up. “It’s merely appropriate retribution for her crimes against our nation and our allies!”

“Shining Armor!” Celestia snapped at him with authority. “Calm down immediately!”

“No, I will not calm down!” Shining snapped furiously. “I saw the damages she caused, and I believe we should have executed her already! Like that monster of a woman did to her prisoners in Maredrid!”

It was right after her birthplace had been mentioned that Cadence suddenly stood up from the dining table, and ran to her room. She heard her husband’s voice calling her in a sincere apologetic tone, but hadn’t stopped. She had gone straight to her chambers, instantly locking the door behind her. Her mind was filled with images of her parents, her two brothers, her childhood friends, and all the other people she had lost when Chrysalis took over the principality of Istalloña.

After discarding her dress like it was nothing but a dirty rag, Cadence had cried herself to sleep, ignoring everyone that came to see if she was okay. It had taken her a long time to fall asleep, and she sadly didn’t stay it for too long. Nightmares picturing all her relatives disappearance in columns of green fire had made sure of that.

She tossed her covers out of the bed in sad frustration before she glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Barely an hour had passed since she had last seen the clock right before she forced her eyes closed to try to get some sleep. She sat up against the bed frame, bringing her knees to her chest before hugging them strongly. Despite her best efforts, she kept thinking about her nightmares. About the woman responsible for them and the question the former had brought back into her head. It was the question that had never gotten any answers, and Cadence quickly realized it would be countless of sleepless nights for her unless she got at least one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A while later, deep under the Castle Grounds…

Cadence felt bad for threatening the two guards her husband had placed at the entrance the Crystal Cells, the deepest dungeons of Canterlot barely used anymore. With the mention of said husband, who was probably sleeping in his office to give her some space. After taking the key of the only occupied cell from the sheepish guards, Cadence ordered them to stay at their post, and that she shouldn’t be disturbed under any circumstances.

With the key secured in her grip, Cadence walked through the seemingly endless corridor, her messy reflection passing over the teal, and purple half-transparent walls around her. After a few minutes, she reached the only illuminated cell at the end of the corridor.

Cadence’s eyes fell on the five brightly glowing runes on the three walls, the ceiling and the floor of the dark teal cave turned into a dungeon. The white light from the magic inscriptions shone like daylight, and made it impossible for Cadence to miss the straw mattress on the far end of the cell, and the woman lying on top of it.

Cadence froze a bit at sight of the mass of dirty, dark green hair that hid a good portion of the woman’s back, but quickly glanced away from it to see if it was safe to go behind the bars of the cell. Once she noticed the two thick, lead-forged chains connecting the wall against which the mattress was placed to matching shackles around the tanned woman’s wrists, she brought the key closer to the keyhole.

“I thought that your Captain gave the order to leave me be for the next forty-eight hours,” Chrysalis’ voice calmly rang through the dungeon, startling Cadence who wasn’t expecting her to be awake.

“... The Captain doesn’t give me orders,” Cadence retorted coldly as she opened the door of the cell.

“......Well, what do you know?” Chrysalis let out in surprise as she turned around before sitting up on her bed, as easily as her chains would allow her to. “Princess Cadenza herself is coming for a night-visit. Assuming it is still nighttime … Kinda hard to tell with those runes,” the former queen commented, nodding at the glowing inscription on the ground.

“It still is,” Cadence said as she leaned her back against the bars of the door. “I thought you were sleeping…”

“Too much light to sleep,” Chrysalis explained casually. “Courtesy of your husband by the way,” she added, rubbing her slightly shadow-ringed eyes with a yawn. “So, how was the honeymoon?”

“....It was good. Why do you ask?” Cadence asked back slowly.

“Are you sure the honeymoon was good? Because, your dear Shining Armor didn’t seem like he had a fulfilling one at all, if his snappy behavior is of any indication,” Chrysalis commented with curiosity. “You should please him more in the sack, men are less violent when they’re satisfied in be...…”

SLAP

“Don’t talk about my husband or me like that, Chrysalis,” Cadence warned as a red, hand-shaped mark appeared on the chained woman’s cheek.

“....I don’t think your aunties would like hearing about you slapping a chained-up prisoner,” Chrysalis stated calmly as she glanced back in Cadence’s direction. “I gotta admit I’m impressed though. I didn’t think you had it in you to do something like that,” she said with a slightly proud smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone, but I strongly suggest you do not let that happen again or else...”

“Or else what?” Cadence asked in an angry snarl.

Cadence had barely had the time to blink before Chrysalis’ bare right foot hit the side of her skull. The princess staggered against the wall before the sole of the same foot was pressed against her throat. Smirking in triumph, Chrysalis kept the pressure on the delicate princess’ throat for a few seconds before bringing her foot back on the ground.

“...Or else, I’ll make your husband regret not enchaining my legs to the wall as well,” Chrysalis explained with a somber chuckle before she sat back on her mattress as the younger woman rubbed her throat then her temple with a wince.

“I should call the guards for what you just did,” Cadence said in a slightly shaking voice while she retreated closer to the door.

“You should have brought them along in the first place, Cadenza,” Chrysalis remarked in a conversational tone. “If I had wanted to, you’d be as cold as an ice cube by the time your husband came looking for you…”

“I thought you’d be interested in finish me off when you get the chance,” Cadenza slowly said with anger, and pain in her eyes.

“If I had a chance to escape this prison, and a personal reason to eliminate you, maybe I would have,” Chrysalis admitted with a shrug. “But, your Shining Armor took all the necessary precautions.” She nodded at the runes, and at the lead shackles on her wrists. “So, what do you want?” she asked with curiosity as she relaxed on her bed.

“...... I want an answer to my question, Chrysalis,” Cadence replied slowly after glaring at the woman before her for a good five minutes.

“Well, I’m not against small talk every now and then,” Chrysalis commented softly. “What’s your question?”

“...Why?” Cadence asked in a shaken whisper.

“Why what?” Chrysalis asked back in a patient tone.

“Why did you do what you did in Maredrid?” Cadence specified with teary eyes. “...You had just become the right hand of my father… He respected you… My brothers looked up to you… You even were a model for me,” Cadence let out with deep sadness. Chrysalis simply looked at her in silence. “To me and my friends, you were like a reincarnation of Princess Celestia: You radiated beauty, and power, but you were also kind to us…” She wiped her tears away, softly sobbing in front of the woman she used to admire. “So… Why … Why did you kill them?”

“..... I had my reasons,” Chrysalis explained slowly under Cadence’s beyond than sad eyes.

“Which are?!” Cadence snapped at the prisoner.

“Which aren’t meant for your princess’ ears, Cadenza,” Chrysalis replied coldly. “Those reasons regard only me…”

“I deserve to know!!! You owe me that much, Chrysalis!”

“I owe you nothing, Cadenza!” Chrysalis shouted back as she stood up to meet her interlocutor in the eye. “I won’t tell you anything, so you can go back to the watchdog you have for a husband.”

Cadence grinded her teeth together before she dropped her strongest argument.

“YOU WILL IF YOU WANT NEWS OF VIGIL LOCUST!!!!” Cadence yelled, instantly silencing the prisoner before her.

“..... You know what has become of him?” Chrysalis asked in a quiet whisper after a minute or two of stunned silence, earning a nod from Cadence. “And you’ll tell me if I answer your question?”

“If you tell me the whole truth, yes,” Cadence stated with firmness.

“The whole truth….. It’s going to be a long story,” Chrysalis whispered slowly.

“It’s not like you have anything else to do here, Chrysalis,” Cadence snarled, waving at the cell walls around them.

“.... You promise to tell me how, and where Vigil is?” Chrysalis asked with narrowed eyes.

“I’ll promise you that if you swear that what you’re going to tell is the truth, and not some lies you’re making up on the spot.”

“....I can swear that, but I can’t guarantee you’re going to believe what I tell you,” Chrysalis admitted coldly.

“Fair enough,” Cadence let out as she leaned back against the bars. “I promise I’ll tell you what I know about Vigil Locust’s situation after you finished.”

“....All right,” Chrysalis let out as she sat back on her prison bed. “... I suppose you want to know from the very beginning?”

“Yes,” Cadence replied laconically.

Chrysalis took a deep breath before starting to speak. “It all began in my hometown, the fantastic city of Maredrid….” She paused when Cadence's eyes widened in surprise at the fact they were both from the same city. "... Don't interrupt me!" She added as Cadence started to open her mouth. "... I used to live in the most prestigious neighborhood of the Istalloñan Capital : ... The Slums..."

Author's Note

Dundun dun.... :p
What happened in Chrysalis Past? do like Cadance, and you'll find out ^^

Thanks to Xhoral1865, PinkieLunaShy, and Batmane for their edits on this chapter ^^

I hope you liked the start, and that you'll like the rest of the story :)

The girl from the Slums of Maredrid

Twenty-five years before the Royal Wedding, slums of Maredrid, Capital of the Principality of Istalloña, territory under the Alicorn Princesses’ protectorate, …

“Mommy?” a six year old girl gently called, poking her mother’s sleeping form. “Mommy!” she called with more strength, causing her mother to stir in her sleep.

“Urgh… What is it?” her mother asked, her voice muffled by the worn-out pillow on which she was sleeping on not long ago.

“I can’t sleep,” the little girl explained softly, leaning over her mother’s face as she turned around to look at the outline of her daughter thanks to the light of the moon.

“Did you count the stars, sweetie?” her mother asked in a tired voice, holding back a yawn.

“I stopped after one million,” the girl replied with a sigh.

“One million, huh?” Her mother cocked a sleepy, but disbelieving, eyebrow at her daughter. “You can count that far?”

“Yes!” the little girl assured with pride.

“What’s the number just before a million then?”

“Nine-thousand!” The young girl swelled out her chest as she claimed her answer.

“Huh-huh….” the mother replied with a mute laugh. “Are you sure, you don’t want to sleep?”

“Nuh-uh!”

“.....You want another story, don’t you?” the mother asked knowingly after her six-year old daughter shook her head. “... Sadly, it’s too dark to read you a…”

A vivid tongue of green fire surged out of the young girl’s finger before it reached the turned-off candle on the nightstand. The mother had to blink to get used to the sudden light, before said light could give her a good view of her daughter. The green glow of the flame only reinforced the color of the dark green locks of hair of the grinning six-year-old, as well as the one from her deep, emerald-colored eyes. The mother’s eyes then travelled down to see her daughter extending a worn-out book with a metallic, snowflake-shaped engraving on the front cover.

“...Just one story?” The girl nodded vigorously. “Then, you’ll go to bed?” The girl nodded again as the mother’s mouth stretched into a sleepy, but genuine smile. “All right, hop on!”

After a quick ‘Yay’, the young girl jumped in bed as her mother sat up against the wall, bringing herself closer in the green light of the candle. The six-year-old quickly crawled to sit on her mother’s lap, and leaned her back against her chest. The mother smiled warmly, the feeling of sleepiness now gone from her mind, and gave a gentle peck on the top of her daughter’s head before taking the book from her tiny hands.

“So… Same story as usual?” The mother asked with a knowing grin after glancing at the book cover.

“Yes!” the little girl nodded fervently. “It’s my favorite!”

“You’re sure you don’t want another?” the mother asked gently. “After all, you should know it by heart by now…”

“But it’s my favorite.” The little girl looked up to her mother, a cute, sad pout on her face. “And you read it so well!”

“.... Ahhhh. How can I say no to that?” the mother asked with a sigh, pointing at the quivering lower lip of her daughter. “Get comfortable, honey.” She opened the book, and brought the first page closer to the light. “...Hum-hum… The Sculptor King and the Flower-maid…. It all began at a noble wedding ceremony in the Gem of Equestria, the Crystal Empire….”

The young girl listened to the tale of a faraway king falling madly in love with a young peasant he had met at one of his cousin’s wedding, for which the young girl’s family had been commissioned for the floral arrangements, with great attention. Despite having been read the story time and time again, the six-year-old still listened as if it was the first time her mother would read it to her.

As the romance between a royal, and a commoner grew to the rhythm of the mother’s calm voice, and the Ooohs and Ahhhs from the daughter, said young girl became sleepier. The mother had nearly finished her tale before the daughter let out a long, and loud yawn.

“.... And so Gleaming Topaz, the young florist, married her king, and was called the Queen of Love across all of Equestria… The end.”

The mother gently closed the book as the six-year old rubbed her eyes with a long yawn. Chuckling softly, she put the book on the nightstand, picked up her now-sleepy child, and then went to the other bedroom of their humble abode. The young girl hugged her mother with all the strength a sleepy child could muster before she felt herself land delicately on her bed.

“Mommy… Do you think it could happen to me?” the young girl asked sleepily. “What happened to Gleaming Topaz… You think I could fall in love with a king and then become queen?”

“Sadly, there aren’t Kings in Equestria anymore, honey,” The mother replied softly, pulling the cover over her child. “But, I’m sure that when you’re a grown up, you’ll be the most beautiful girl of all Equestria, and that all its Princes would want to marry you,” she beamed as she spotted a faint blush on her child’s cheeks. “You’d be a wonderful Princess, I’m sure!”

“I would like it better to be a queen, like Gleaming Topaz… The New Queen of Love. That’s what I want to be!” the child called with a pang of excitement before sleep caught up on her, and made her yawn loudly. “...Do you know if the flower lady at the market needs an assistant?”

“I’ll ask her when I see her,” the mother promised sincerely. “Now, it’s time to sleep,” she added, giving her daughter a soft kiss on the forehead.

“Goodnight, Mommy,” the little girl replied softly before snuggling her pillow and closing her eyes.

“Goodnight, my little Queen,” the mother whispered as she left the room, though she managed to catch her daughter smiling widely at the nickname.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six years later, ...

Over the years, the young girl discovered that being a florist wasn’t really her thing. It wasn’t that she was terrible at it, but it wasn’t how she had imagined it to be. Her favorite tale kept on about how Gleaming Topaz was feeling so alive when she was working her floral compositions, unlike the little girl. Of course, serving a customer brought her a sense of self-satisfaction, but she had realized it would never be her true calling. The same couldn’t be told about what she did during her spare time.

Once she was done with helping the florist, she would set herself up in a unused spot of the market with all the rags, and worn-out clothes she had recovered, and sewn into costumes with her mother. It was the florist that had made her notice her talent for impersonations: she had caught her many times mocking the annoying customers by imitating them once they left the stall. While the florist didn’t approve of the practice, even if the customers concerned never saw any of it, she couldn’t deny the impersonations were spot on.

By now, all the vendors on the market knew of the girl, and would have a good laugh thanks to her at the end of the day. Every day, the young girl would perform for them just before they started putting away their goods, playing all the funny scenes she had seen the vendors do during her day at the flower stall. The tips she received from her shows, and from her job at the flower stall were quite enough to help her and her mother go by more easily than before.

Though, that was before her mother started to cough. It had started a year ago, and had only worsened instead of just going away on its own like her mother had said it would. It had gone from an occasional dry throat to a hourly, loose coughing fit accompanied with a very light, but constant fever. The local herbalist had a special brand of tea that helped her mother’s situation, but the girl knew that it wasn’t cheap. She also knew that her mother only bought very little quantities of that tea every month whereas she should drink some of it every day to actually get better, but their finances couldn’t afford it.

The constant fever, and repetitive coughing fits left the mother in a state where she couldn’t work as much as she used to, which only worsened the problem. The girl had tried to find another job, and to convince the flower lady to pay her a little more until her mother would get better. The florist had said that she couldn’t afford to increase her salary, and not many people outside the slums would give a job to a twelve-year-old from there anyway. As for the people inside the slums, it wasn’t that they wouldn’t hire her, they just couldn’t afford to do so.

For the past few weeks, her mother had been confined to bed, her fever skyrocketing, and causing the young girl to stay home to take care of her, only leaving to buy a little bit of food on the market. Their savings were almost gone by now, even when many of market people had given the young girl a generous price on her buyings because of her mother’s state.

Such was the case today: the baker had given her an extra loaf of bread, and the grocer had made a ‘two for the price of one’ deal for its vegetables. She had bowed in gratitude at them, promising to pay all their kindness back one day, before she ran back to her home with her arms full. Though, she encountered a rather peculiar sight when she passed the threshold of her and her mother’s home. Two men clad in the armor of the Maredrid’s Royal Guard were standing in her living room, both with their faces unreadable.

“W...What’s going on?” the twelve year old girl asked in a trembling voice. “Why are you here?!” she almost shouted when the two guards looked at each other in discomfort. “Where is my MOTHER?!”

“Cal-Calm do-own, Sweetie,” her mother’s coughing voice came from the other room.

She dropped the bags on the floor, and rushed past the two compassionate guards into her mother’s bedroom. In it, she found her mother where she had left her, in her bed, and with a man wearing a dark cloak, matching hat that hid the top of his head, and a doctor’s mask that covered the rest of his face. The girl ignored him, and went straight to her mother’s side.

“Mommy, are you okay?” she asked with worry, before her mother nodded briefly. “Who is this man?”

“He..-He..”

“I’m a friend of your mother,” the man replied in polite tone, interrupting the mother’s difficult answer. “An old friend actually.”

“I’ve never seen you before!” the girl asked with suspicion. “You can’t be one of Mommy’s friends!”

“Sweetie… He’s one of my friends,” her mother replied softly. “I just haven’t seen him since you were born… Now, could you leave us alone? We have things to talk about in private.”

Her eyes still narrowed at the man with the mask, the little girl still nodded at her mother before leaving the room, and the two adults to their privacy. She went to her room, which was just next to her mother’s, and sat on her bed, close to the small hole in the corner of her room. The young girl had carved the hole with her magic when her mother’s sickness worsened so she could hear if her mother needed help during the night. She pulled away the plank that kept the hole closed, and immediately after, her mother and her guest’s voices faintly reached for her ears.

“... So, she doesn’t know?”

“N.... No, she doesn’t. I res...respected my promise…”

“Yet, you sent him a letter.”

“I know but, I’m dying.... I can’t leave her with nothing… That’s why I wrote that letter.”

“What do you expect us to do? It’s not like he can take her in, you should know that...”

“I’m not asking for something like that… I just want her to be okay after I’m gone… She doesn’t have to stay in Maredrid… I just want her to have a chance to grow up normally, without having to worry about maintaining a roof over her head… She’s just twelve… She doesn’t deserve to live on her own... “

“That’s it?... Just that?!”

“Just that… That’s all I could ever ask for my daughter.”

“....If it’s just that, then it could be arranged…. I’ll do my best to make sure she’s nothing to worry about!”

“Th..Thank you!”

And with that, the girl heard the man leaving her mother’s room. She didn’t bother to check if the two guards had gone back with him, she just sat on her bed for a while. Then she remembered she had the groceries to store, and the lunch to prepare. The twelve-year-old put everything but the vegetables for today’s soup; onion soup. She peeled three large onions before dicing them very slowly, while trying to convince herself that they were the cause of her tears, despite the fact they had started to roll out of her eyes as soon as her mother had whispered that she was dying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few weeks later,...

One day, her mother didn’t wake up for breakfast. The girl had tried to make her stir by all the means she could think off: pinching, slapping, yelling, slamming the door shut, and so on. But no matter what she tried, her mother never woke up. The piercing cries of pain that rang through the whole neighborhood were more than enough to let everyone know what happened.

It had taken a full day, and someone calling the Royal Guard to pry the young Titanian away from her late mother. As much as they tried to pull her away from the dead body, the girl held on tight. She even had shoved more than one neighbor away from her with her deep green magic. After the guards intervened to separate her from her mother, they had to take the girl to the post, declaring that they couldn’t leave the girl on her own that night.

It was at the slums’ Guard post that the cloaked man from before found the young girl. She had been crying, curled in a ball against the corner of an unused office while holding a small book with a snowflake engraved on the cover close to her heart. The commander of the Guard Post sighed with sadness at the sight of the heartbroken girl before he turned to the cloaked man to explain why she was there in the first place.

The man with the cloak, and the doctor’s mask nodded at the commander before approaching the girl. He kneeled gently next to her, and waited for her to look at him. He patiently remained there for about ten minutes before she spared him a glance.

“Do you know why I’m here?” he asked softly.

“Hum!” the girl let out with a nod, wiping her tears away. “Mommy told me...“

“That’s good,” he stated before standing back up. “Come with me. You don’t want to stay here, do you?”

The girl shrugged noncommittally, but still stood up, ready to follow him. He hesitated before extending his hand in her direction. A hand she took almost immediately in her right one, her left holding her book, and the small bag of her belongings. After a brief nod at the commander, the masked man, and the young girl exited the Guard Post.

“Where are you taking me?” the girl asked after a long silence, and an even longer walk through the slums. “To your house?” she asked in a whisper as she noticed they were getting out of the slums.

“No. We are going to the harbor,” her mother’s friend replied casually. “I have found a family that lives out of the town, and that could take you in for now. We’re going there by the canal. It would be quicker.”

“....What about mommy’s …..funeral?” she asked in a quiet whisper, her whole body shaking at that word.

“What about them?”

“When are they going to take place?”

“Soon enough, don’t worry! I’ll take care of everything,” the man stated before they kept walking in silence until they reached the docks.

“Why are you wearing a mask?” the young girl asked with curiosity as the walked along a few embarcation.

“I have a large burn around my mouth… An experiment with magic that got wrong,” he explained matter-of-factly. “It’s to not make people uncomfortable when they’re forced to look at it,” he added, pointing at the mask.

“Ah… Sorry.”

“It’s natural to be curious,” he stated with a shrug,and then pointed at a nearby boat. “There’s our ride.”

The young girl looked at the boat he was pointing. It was completely different from the other boats in the docks. Sure, it was a caravelle, like most of the ships docked in this section of the harbor, but it looked so dirty and worn out compared to the boats around it. She was more than puzzled by it, and turned to her mother’s friend to ask him about that choice of a ride, but she got interrupted when one of the men on deck spotted them. The tall, tattooed man called for them, waving them to come aboard.

“I don’t like this boat,” the girl whispered to the masked man, holding his hand tighter as the men of the crew looked at her with surprise. “They smell like the tavern next to the market, and rotten fishes…” she explained, her nose wrinkling in discomfort.

“That they do,” the man agreed, whispering back “Though, I’d suggest to not tell them that, and start to get used to it. It’s quite the long journey to Camelu…”

“...Wha...You said that we were just going out of town,” the girl asked in confusion.

“Yes, well about that… I lied!” he stated, letting go of her hand before snapping his fingers.

A large, dirty hand was immediately pressed on the twelve-year-old’s mouth before a matching other hand, and the arm attached to it, prevented her from moving her arms. She tried to scream, and kick herself free, but the grip was too strong. The man carrying her brought her quickly below deck before anyone on the busy docks could notice a thing, leaving the man with the mask with his captain. The masked man leaned down to pick up the book she had with her.

“Oh… A first edition copy.” he stated calmly, inspecting the tale book. “How odd for her to have something so valuable, don’t you think?” he asked the ship captain with curiosity.

“I don’t really know, since I hardly read anything except docking manifests, sir,” the captain replied with a shrug.

"It's a shame really," The masked man commented as he leafed through the child's book. "You're missing on a lot of stuff..." he added before pausing at the red mark of a nail-polish accident on the back of the book. "Tsss...Children are always so messy," he whispered, clicking his tongue in a disapproving tone.

“Any specific instructions regarding our shipment?” the captain asked softly, his gaze scanning the port for any potential witness. -They were none!-

“She’s a Titanian, so I hope you have lead shackles below deck,” the masked man explained casually as he put the book in one of his cloak’s pockets. “As for the rest, the Sultan of Nadira would probably appreciate if the newest addition to his harem would remain pure for him.”

“Understood, sir!” the captain nodded slowly.

“Though, he’d probably appreciate not having to tame her or to teach her everything a woman in a harem should be able to do... so your crew can work on that with her if they feel up to it,” the masked man added matter-of-factly, earning a shocked stare from the captain of the worn-out ship.

“Huh...I...guess,” the captain said slowly as the masked man shook his hand.

“Nice doing business with you, good sir.” The masked man stated casually, before making his way off the ship “Oh! I trust you to bring me back my share of the Sultan’s payment.”

Months later, the worn-out caravel came back with the payment for the masked man. But, as soon as they reached Maredrid’s port, the Royal Guard arrested all the crew and their captain for trafficking in human beings. They were put on a brief trial, and all sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in the worst prison of Istalloña. They had claimed the existence of the masked man, but he was never found. It was like he had never existed in the first place, much like the twelve-year-old girl that used to make the slums market-stall-keepers laugh with her little bits of acting.

Author's Note

And there you go,
The story of the Changeling Queen is finally unveiled :p

Thanks to my proofreaders for checking it out.
Batmane of Equestria, Xhoral1865, PinkieLunaShy, and Deamonbunny Thank you ^^

Anyway, don't hesitate to comment on the story ;) (sorry to all those who expected something else from me ^^)

The Concubine of the Sultan of Nadira

Fourteen years before the Royal Wedding, Royal palace of Nadira, Economic Capital of the Camelu's Sultanates...

Sultan Murad the Fourth of Nadira was a talented leader, and an even more talented businessman. It was thanks to his flair for spotting good deals that all the northern region of Camelu, of which Nadira was the capital, prospered well above the other regions of the almost desertic peninsula. Said prosperity had been shared with the other parts of Camelu, for it was the Sultan’s dream to have his country become one of the most well developed in the world. Those were amongst the many reasons the Sultan had been respected by all the people of Camelu, and those of Equestria. The Princesses Celestia and Luna themselves thought greatly of the Sultan. When Murad’s time came to an end, the whole peninsula, and many Equestrians mourned him during an entire week.

The great Sultan Murad’s dream of a prosperous, and unified Camelu had unfortunately died with him as his heir, Haakim, was a much different person than the great man his father used to be. Unlike his wise, and calm sire, Haakim had let his pride take over his common sense during a meeting with Equestrian ambassadors, something that caused many trade-routes with Equestria to be cut off. Without its source, Camelu’s past prosperity quickly become nothing but a pleasant memory for the people of the Cameluen Sultanates. With Haakim at the head of the greatest Sultanate of Camelu there was no hope for any sort of economical, or political recovery.

That was the reason of Vigil Locust’s presence in the dunes located in the North of the elegant spires of Nadira. Vigil was a giant of a man, easily seven feet tall. He was draped of deep blue clothes specifically made for the desert. His deep blue eyes intently scanning the wall around the palace. He intently observed the lights of the guards going about their rounds by the light of they carried. Some of which disappeared behind the covered walkway they would walk through. He glanced behind him, seeing his camel perfectly still where he had attached it, and started to run toward the palace.

Under the cover of the moonless night, Vigil reached the base of the surrounding wall. He leaned his whole body against it, so that any guard that might look down wouldn’t see him easily in the dark. The infiltrator then closed his eyes in a brief, but intense focus. A faint green glaze appeared around his forearms, and legs. Pure black, chitinous, and spiky gauntlets, and boots had just replaced the blue cotton of his clothes.

He took a short breath before he started to climb the smooth sandstone wall. The spikes of his gauntlets’ palms or claws allowed him to have a grip on the seemingly flawless surface where has the ones of his boots were the perfect climbing crampons for Vigil. Quickly enough, he had reached the parapet of the covered way, sixty feet above the ground. From his hanging position, he only saw the glows of two patrolling guards’ torches passing from behind the parapet.

Vigil waited until the glows met, and parted way before he climbed on top of the wall. He glanced to his right, and left, only to smirk at the sight of two guards walking away from him. Vigil simply walked the stairs located a few feet away as a short, bright green glow flashed around all his clothes. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, Vigil encountered two of Nadira’s guards who briefly nodded at him. He returned their nods instantly, and went in direction of the West wing of the palace. He met quite a few guards on his way, but none of them bothered Vigil’s journey. After all, there was nothing wrong in one the Sultan’s guards patrolling the palace’s grounds.

He walked in front of the West wing’s only entrance and stopped in front of two guards wearing pure white cotton pants, and a black chestplate with a matching helmet, unlike vigil’s yellow, and green uniform. They barely turned their eyes in his direction when he didn’t move from before them.

“May we help you?” one of them asked matter-of-factly.

“I have a message for the Sultan, and I was wondering if he was inside,” Vigil explained slowly, and calmly.

“He is indeed,” the other guard replied softly. “I’m afraid it will have to wait, unless it’s an urgent matter… The Sultan doesn’t like being disturbed when he’s in the West wing.”

“It was just to be certain,” Vigil stated gently. “It’ll have to wait until tomorrow then.”

And with that, Vigil saluted the two guards, and turned his back to them. He didn’t try to force his way in, as it would blow his cover immediately. He only had to be sure of the Sultan’s location, and now that he was sure, Vigil would have to do some more climbing. After all, only the Sultan and his eunuchs were allowed to walk through the front door of the Harem.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The climbing to the Sultan’s balcony had been as easy, and as discreet as the one Vigil had done earlier on the wall. With the stealth of a black cat, Vigil reached for the threshold that separated the balcony and the Sultan’s chamber. The light curtain that occupied the space before the threshold did nothing to prevent the strong smell of the aphrodisiac incense of the room to reach for the assassin’s nose.

He shook his head a bit, and brought a piece of clothing to cover his nose. It wasn’t the first time Vigil had infiltrated a target’s bedchamber with said target’s wife, mistress, concubine, or whore, but the smell was usually this strong when his target was way older than the current Sultan. Maybe Haakim of Nadira needed more help to get in the mood.

Vigil quickly brushed the condescending remark of his mind under the proverbial rug, and leaned his head a bit toward the threshold. He spotted the young Sultan lying lazily on his large bed, his tunic halfway off, and his long hair free of his traditional turban. Haakim didn’t look at all in the balconies direction, and Vigil quickly understood his reason to do so.

Said reason was busy dancing for him, wearing the finest piece of oriental lingerie, probably from the finest tailor of Nadira. The Sultan’s eyes followed the tanned curves that were accented by silken straps that hung from the gold-rimmed bra, and thongs the dancer was wearing. The silk she was wearing was of the same shade of green as her long hair. She kept a slightly transparent mask over her mouth, but the fabric did a poor job hiding her plump, and luscious lips, as her brightly green eyes exuded nothing but arousal and want. The only things out of place in her outfit were the two thick, metallic bands she had on her wrists.

She swayed her hips as she came closer to the Sultan’s bed, while said Sultan was biting his lip in anticipation. As the Nadiran leader kept his eyes focused on the beauty that started to climb on his bed, Vigil took a deep breath to clear his mind of the sensual dancing session of the Sultan’s concubine. It took him a good minute, much to his own shame, but he relativized quickly. He was excellent at what he did, but that didn’t make Vigil much more than the average man in certain peculiar situations.

Once his thoughts were clear enough, Vigil reached for one of the two rather long daggers he kept at his belt. He slowly made his way inside as silently as he used to be, though he doubted none of them would be able hear him unless he was stomping to them. The Sultan was quite the talker apparently, and his concubine only giggled at every sentences he said before they both let out muffled moans of pleasure.

Vigil held his dagger in a reversed grip as he approached the bed, seeing the Sultan pinning his concubine on the mattress as she wrapped her legs around his torso. Haakim of Nadira buried his face in the tanned woman’s neck while said woman was moaning in his ear, her eyes shut, and her mask half way off. As he raised his dagger to bury it in the Sultan’s back, Vigil’s eyes slightly focused on the concubine’s. He stopped for a second when he realized he was probably going to have to kill her as well.

I’m sorry, girl… You were in the wrong place at the wrong time… Vigil thought with sympathy before making the blade go down his target.

Though, during his brief hesitation, the concubine had opened her eyes, and saw him and the dagger. As the blade came down, she rolled out of the way, saving the Sultan as well as herself. Vigil cursed loudly when his dagger pierced through the soft mattress, earning the attention of the confused Sultan now on the ground. He pulled the blade out before he faced the half-naked couple who was trying to stand back up.

Haakim, who had been back on his feet already, helped his concubine up only to shove her strongly against his assassin to reach for his sword on the other side of the room. The woman let out a shocked, and surprised gasp as she crashed against their attacker’s large chest. Her eyes were beyond terrified when Vigil briefly looked into them before he pushed her on the bed.

Coward! Vigil snarled in his mind as he took a step toward the Sultan who had drawn his scimitar out.

The young Sultan whirled his weapon a couple of times before taking his stance before Vigil. It surprised the assassin that the Sultan hadn’t immediately called for his guards. He had heard that Haakim had learned how to fight, but Vigil hadn’t known he would be stupid enough to face an assassin on his own. Though, in retrospect, he should have known since the clients had stated they wanted this prideful idiot of a Sultan away from Nadira’s throne.

Haakim swung his sword at Vigil, aiming for the assassin’s head. The Sultan’s form was good, but Vigil’s trained eyes saw that the Sultan had never been in a real fight before. He had been trained like many nobility children were: with masters, and sparring partners that couldn’t really fight back properly so they wouldn’t harm the sons of the one who payed them. Vigil dodged without effort before retaliating.

The Sultan’s scimitar had a longer reach than the assassin’s dagger, but it didn’t matter as Vigil’s superior skills largely compensated for it. They traded blows for a couple of seconds before Vigil had decided that he was done toying with the young Sultan. With a strong blow on his opponent’s wrist, Vigil disarmed the Sultan who then took a step back toward the bed. Haakim held his bloody wrist, opening his mouth to finally call for his guards, but Vigil had already prepared his hand to throw his weapon in the Sultan’s throat. The dagger was about to leave his hand when something he had never thought could happen happened.

The concubine behind Haakim had pressed her hand over the Sultan’s mouth, and plunged a dagger in his stomach. Vigil held his knife-throwing stance, his eyes expressing the same shock as Haakim’s, before he noticed that the dagger murdering his target was his. He looked down, and saw that the other scabbard at his belt was empty. The concubine must have taken it when she bumped into him.

Haakim let out a muffled cry of pain as he fell on the bed, dragged by the green-haired concubine. As soon as his back touched the bed, the woman pulled the dagger her out, and let go of his mouth. Vigil saw the delicate hand holding the blade trembling, before he noticed her green eyes. The same eyes he had seen display arousal, and affection to the Sultan were now looking at him with a mix of unmatched hatred, and fury as well a hint of terror.

“..W..Why?” Haakim asked in a pained groan.

“....Why… WHY?!” The concubine yelled in a fury that startled the still surprised assassin. “YOU DARE ASK ME WHY?!” she stressed her anger by stabbing him in the stomach once again. “You’ve been abusing me for years!” She stabbed him again, this time right in the chest, perforating one of his lungs. ”You made me touch you..” She stabbed him again as he let out strangled cries for help. “Caress you…” the blade came out of him, and went right back in. “Kiss you…” His cries became quieter as the blade pierced him again. “Bite you…” His movements slowed a lot. “Lick you…” His hand fell heavily on the mattress. “Suck you…” The Sultan didn’t make a noise now. “Yo-you made me fuck you!!!!” She slashed his belly open at that last one. “AND YOU DARE ASK ME WHY?!!!”

She kept stabbing him as quickly as she could under the eyes of the assassin. Blood soiled the bed sheets at the same time as it soiled her clothes, and her body. Vigil had found that girl beautiful when he saw her seducing the Sultan, but now that he was seeing her covered in blood, repeatedly plunging a dagger in a now lifeless body, an expression of a feral desire to maim on her once gentle face, Vigil couldn’t stop himself from thinking the girl was magnificent.

The sound of something, or someone heavy hitting the locked door of the chamber brought the tall assassin out of his reverie. He put his dagger back in its scabbard, and quickly went to the bed. He grabbed the concubine’s forearm, interrupting her stabbing-frenzy.

“That’s enough!” Vigil stated with force as the girl looked at him in the eyes. “He’s dead!”

The girl shook like a leaf after Vigil stated the obvious, her eyes still showing the same hatred as before, but terror had overcome it now. The girl was terrorized by what she had just done. She let go of the blood-soaked blade, and looked at what she had done. Vigil picked his second dagger up, cleaned it on the Sultan’s robe, sheathed it before he saw the girl standing up to lean against the nearest wall while her gaze remained on the dead Sultan on the bed. After she stared at the sieve of a man Haakim of Nadira had become, she gagged a couple of times, and then threw up on the ground.

Vigil felt another pang sympathy for the girl as he remembered that he hadn’t been much different of her after his first kill years ago, but he made his way to the balcony. The girl was too busy to see him leave so he reached for the stone railings without any problem. He jumped off the balcony just before he heard the doors of the chamber break down. Vigil had levitated himself when he had fallen to the point where his own two feet were about two feet above the ground, thus breaking the momentum of the fall. He quickly changed the form of his clothes into ones of a random servant. As many guards, and servants alike rushed to the West-wing in hurry, no one bothered Vigil’s escape.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With both his parents dead, and the facts the Sultan hadn’t married nor sired an heir yet, it fell on Haakim’s favorite’s shoulders to rule for now, and the first thing she took care of was to sentence the green-haired concubine to death for the murder of Sultan of Nadira. She had confessed killing Haakim, so there had been no need for a trial, and she was to be executed at the first light of dawn.

Farah, the favorite, hadn’t been pleased by the green-haired girl’s confession. Since her arrival years ago, Farah had only been hating the younger girl for drawing the Sultan’s attention from her. She wasn’t the only one in the Harem to feel like that, none of them realizing that she wanted nothing but to get out of the West-wing. Most of the women in the Harem were also angry that she had confessed immediately: Like Farah, they had hoped the guards would have to force the confession out of her, by all means possible.

The green-haired concubine had been placed in the dirtiest cell of the dungeons, and given the filthiest tunic the guards could find. Favorite’s orders, the guards had replied after she asked why she had to take the clothes she was wearing off, though they didn’t take the bands on her wrists off. She didn’t argue, and got changed under the sly smirks of the guards, and their approving eyes. Another order of the Favorite had been to always keep an eye on her.

The worst had been when she had to use the rusty bucket they had given her as toilet. She endured the cat calls, and mocking whistles with as much pride as she could gather while she relieved herself. She only needed to remain strong for a few hours, and then Death would finally deliver her from her five-year-long imprisonment. The Harem had been rather comfortable, but she felt as trapped inside it as she was inside this mediocre cell. She figured the new shift had started when two new guards entered the dungeons before those who had been watching over her left.

Dawn must be near.... All will be over soon. She thought with a brief sigh as she brought her knees to her chest while the two armored men stood at each side of her cell.

Five minutes later, the peaceful silence was broken by one of the two guards.

“So, why are you here?” he asked casually as if he was talking to one of his fellow guard.

The prisoner blinked in surprise at the question, and at the voice that had come from the guard’s mouth. She had heard this voice once not so long ago, but it hadn’t belonged to a guard. She looked up from her knees to the bars of her cell. Thanks to the torch he had put in equilibrium on the floor and against the lower bars, she could see he was crouched down to her level. Thanks to the faint orange glow, his eyes stood out in the obscurity. The same blue eyes that had been forceful when he interrupted her, yet those azure orbs were calm, and patient now.

“...You?”

“Yes, me,” Vigil replied quietly before she glanced at the guard at the other side of her cell. “He won’t be a problem.”

He pointed casually up the back of the guard’s neck, making her notice the faintly glowing dart buried in his flesh.

“.....When did you do that?” she asked in an awed voice.

“Just before I talked to you,” Vigil stated calmly, drawing the prisoner’s attention back on him. “Now, could you answer my question? I asked first after all.”

“I’m here because I killed the Sultan,” she said with annoyance. “You were there…”

“Exactly,” Vigil stated softly. “I was there, but you didn’t mention me… You could have made a story up, and you’d be in the Harem with the other concubines…”

“The Harem is a prison just like this cage!” She snarled angrily, waving at the bars between them. “The women in it are just too stupid to see it… “

“I’ve never lived in one, so I’ll have to believe you on that,” Vigil admitted softly. “But, you still could have lied to protect your life.”

“The Kizlar Agha heard my screaming, and found me covered in blood….”

“You were found throwing up at the sight of the bloody mess the Sultan had become, without the dagger that killed him, and as far as I know, you managed to convince everyone you loved the Sultan very much… You even had me fooled,” he added with a pang of admiration. “You could have lied your escape from the executioner’s blade.”

“Maybe I could have,” the girl admitted slowly. “Though, the only reason the favorite didn’t have me killed before today was because she feared the Sultan’s reaction... Even if I had convinced everyone I was innocent, Farah would have found a way to get rid of me once she was done mourning him.”

“The favorite doesn’t seem to appreciate your company,” Vigil commented slowly.

“Farah is nothing but a fat, jealous, ugly cow!” The girl fumed, green sparks of fire surging from the tip of her fingers.

“Now, I’ve seen her, and she’s far from ugly or fat,” Vigil commented casually, his eyes lowering to the thick metallic bracelets on the girl’s wrists. “She’s just pregnant, and while she’s clearly not as beautiful as you that doesn’t make her ugly… Unless you speak of her personality,” he added, not seeing the faint blush on the captive’s cheeks. “Those are made of lead, aren’t they?”

“..Y..Yes,” she stammered in response as he pointed at her bracelets.

“How long have they been making you wear those things?” Vigil asked slowly, his tone slightly angered.

“...Since the day I was shipped in Camelu to be bought by the Sultan,” she replied, her voice shaking at her own words.

“.....How old were you?” Vigil asked slowly, causing the girl to look straight in his eyes.

“......Twelve,” she replied in a single breath after a short silence, her voice barely above a whisper.

“....... Did the Sultan…” Vigil started, shocked by her answer.

“As soon as I got here,” she replied before he finished his sentence as genuine tears of sadness rolled down her cheeks.

“...What’s your name, girl?”

“Why do you ask?” the captive asked as she wiped her tears away.

“Because I like to know the name of the people I’m going to kill,” Vigil stated slowly as he stood up tall before the bars that separated him from a shocked, and terrified green-haired girl, one hand going for the scimitar at his belt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The same day, at dusk, ...

Farah, Sultan Haakim’s favorite, and future mother of the next Sultan, was extremely content with herself. The whore who had slayed her beloved was no more. The guard’s suggestion to torture her more before her execution had been a success. Listening to that girl’s pathetic tale from outside the dungeons had been a fantastic way to recover from the loss of the Sultan. Her panicking shouts before she heard the blade cutting her neck had been even better.

The two guards had come out with the green-haired woman’s head in a wooden chest rimmed with gold and gemstones, like she had ordered them to do once the job was done. The captive’s terrorized expression would always be the last image she would have from the girl, and it was just perfect for Farah. Though it disturbed the other women of the Harem that the favorite had placed the chest in the center of their common room as a warning for all those who would cross her.

Farah had been in the Harem’s temple since supper, praying for the soul of the late Sultan when a young servant quickly barged inside as if Discord was after her.

“Mistress! I apologize for barging in the temple like that, but something’s wrong with the chest,” the servant explained quickly in a submissive, and apologetic tone.

“What do you mean?” Farah asked in confusion, her prayer momentarily forgotten.

“You should just come and see, mistress,” the younger woman replied with a bow. “You’re not going to believe it if I try to tell you.”

Frowning in suspicion, and puzzlement, the Favorite followed the servant-girl to the common room of the Harem where most of the other women, and a large deal of the eunuchs and servants were massed around the pedestal on top of which the chest had been placed. All made way for the Favorite, and she quickly froze like at the sight of the chest like everyone else.

A bright green light emanated from within the chest itself, projecting a matching, linear halo accross the room, and the people who started at it with unease. Some of the more scared girls whispered to each other, saying nonsense about the Horse God Titania’s vengeance for the brutal execution of one of her daughters. Panicking whispers prospered throughout the room before all gazes turned toward the Favorite. She bit her lip before shoving the servant that had called in the temple forward.

“Open it!” she ordered sternly.

“...B-But..”

“OPEN IT!!” Farah yelled angrily, causing the girl to wince in fear.

The young servant gulped nervously, and slowly went close to the glowing chest. Many girls in the room held their breaths when her hands were rested on top of the chest’s lid. She tensed in fear before pushing the lip open with vigor. The green light shone brightly through the entire room briefly before it lessened in intensity.

“What’s glowing like that?” Farah asked with impatience after the servant looked at the source of the light.

“It’s… a..an inscription on her forehead, mistress,” the girl stammered uneasily as she stepped aside from the chest.

Farah blinked in stupor before she went to check for herself. The whore’s head was still in the chest, her long green hair still occupying most of the space, and her face was still torn apart in a frown of terror. The only thing different about the head was that glowing, green engraving that laid proudly on the beheaded girl’s tanned forehead. Farah narrowed her eyes to see what the engraving was saying.

“...Everything is permitted for Nothing is true,” the Favorite whispered the engraved words in confusion.

Immediately after the words left her mouth, the whore’s head bursted into green flames, earning shrieks of surprise from the Favorite, and many of the people in the room. It only last for a second, and when the flames died down, Farah looked again inside the chest before her jaw dropped.

Instead of the whore’s head, it was the head of one of the two guards that had given the chest to the Favorite. Her shocked face didn’t get the time to change into a frown of fury for having been deceived, as faint hisses came from within the chest. Farah looked closer and saw four small, spheric items lying in each corner of the chest that had been hidden by the long green hair. Each sphere had a string that came out of it, and each string was quickly getting consumed by greenish sparks.

“What in the world…” Farah let out as the sparks reached the inside of the black spheres.

And thus the bloodline of the greatest Sultan Camelu had ever known, Murad the Fourth, was shattered into oblivion, and disappeared from the Sultanates’ future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her green gaze was losing itself in the infinite blue of the sea around her. The wind getting caught in her hair, and the smell of the sea spray tickling her nostrils was something entirely new for her. She wasn’t entirely sure, but she was certain that freedom felt, and smelled something just like that.

“Try to not fall overboard,” Vigil’s voice made the former concubine jump in surprise before he placed his arms on the ship’s rail. “This part of the ocean is quite cold.”

“I’ll be careful….” She glanced furtively at the giant of a man at her right, who still towered her despite being slumped on the railing. “...Thank you for taking me with you.” she whispered gently.

“It’s nothing but an exchange of friendly services.” Vigil waved off casually. “You did the job I was paid for in my stead, I had to do something to help you out.”

“Still, I don’t think I could ever repay you for that,” the former concubine added softly.

“Well, I’m not exactly done with that, so you’ve got time to think about that,” Vigil said matter-of-factly.

“...What do you mean?” she asked in confusion.

“You got rid of my target, I’ll help you do so with yours,” Vigil explained slowly.

“..... I don’t have any target…”

“Not even the people who sold you?” Vigil asked, his tone cool, and even as the concubine stared at him with shock. “Do you know….”

“He said he was friend of my mother,” she replied in a whisper. “He wore a mask, and never told me his name….”

“You’ll find him,” Vigil stated slowly. “It’ll take time, but you will.”

“I don’t really believe you, and what will I do if I even find him?” the girl snapped in a shaken voice. “I’ll do what?! Jiggling my body at him until he drops dead?! Because that’s all I can do!”

“Well, you’ve got the perfect body to do so, but it’ll be a much too sweet way for him to go,” Vigil remarked softly, his eyes scanning the sea as a deep blush spread on the seventeen-year-old’s cheeks. “You just need to develop a rather particular set of skills for once you do find him,” he explained calmly.

“What set of skills?” she asked after a few seconds to calm down her blush.

“The same set I have,” Vigil stated with a small smile as he faced the girl. “The same set of skills I developed in the Hive.”

“The Hive?” she asked in confusion. “What’s that?”

“The cradle of the secular organization I belong to,” Vigil explained with his voice barely above a whisper. “The home of the Changelings.”

Author's Note

And here's chapter two of Chrysalis Story...

This depiction of a harem was sort of inspired by what could have been found in the first arc of the comic Djinn

Huge thanks to my proofreaders: Batmane of Equestria, Xhoral1865, and PinkieLunaShy, for their work on this chapter ^^

Next chapter will tell everything there is to know about the Changelings of the Apple Scratch verse ^^

Hope you liked it, and don't hesitate to comment ^^

Mariacheat-Brony

The girl inside the chrysalis

Changeling Hive, somewhere deep in the jungle of the Grand Duchy of Maretonia, Thirteen years and a half before the Royal Wedding …

Moving from a slave’s life with a relative comfort to the life of a newborn larva in the Hive had been quite hard for the once Concubine. During her five years in Nadira, she had been forced to stay fit to remain in the Sultan’s good graces, but it had only been a matter of a healthy diet. In the Hive, she had to actually do something to keep up with the others. Under Vigil’s recommendation, the Swarm Lady, Red Carnation, had been put in charge of the girl’s formation, along with the other larvas she had been tutoring before the former Concubine’s arrival. It had been hard, but after a few weeks she found a pace similar to the one she had had in the slums of Maredrid. She was still behind others physically, but she was slowly but surely catching up to them.

The crimson-haired instructor was also in charge of her magical training, being a Titanian herself as well. Those weren’t the best for the former concubine. Adolescence was an important period for Titanians, for it was during that time that their inner magic core would finish its development properly. Spending nearly whole of hers with lead, which is known as a natural magic-inhibitor, shackled around her wrists had already done some serious damage according to Carnation.

Carnation had told her that her core, which had only started to grow back when the lead shackles had been pulled off, had already slowed down its growth. Her instructor had also informed the girl that it would most likely come to a full stop a bit after her eighteenth birthday. She would still be able to do magic, but Carnation had clearly informed her that she would unlikely become a Drone, and would probably have to resort being a Worker. Vigil had briefly explained to the girl how things worked in the Hive on their way to the hidden temple, and, while she hadn’t fully understood the origin, or the meaning behind of the various appellations, she knew one thing for sure: Workers never left the Hive’s vicinity.

If she wanted take her revenge on the masked man, she’d have to become a drone, and for that she had to find a way to drastically speed her core’s growth up, or find a way for it to last much longer. And, that was why she spend most of her free time, which basically meant the night, in the vast library of the Hive. Sadly, while the library was more than well stocked, most of the scrolls, or books around were about Countries customs, manners of speaking, protocols, and so on. Under many aliases, the Hive accepted contracts from all over the continent, so its members had be aware of all those. It was what determined the success of their missions after all.

One night, the green-haired Larva was going through the shelves of the more secluded part of the Hive’s library, where she had found books about Titanian Magic, even if they weren’t really useful to her. She went deeper into the library until the shelves let place to a large alcove hidden by a set of thick, dark curtains. She examined the curtains curiously while wondering how she hadn’t noticed that alcove before now, considering it was taller, and larger than any shelf of the library. She put her lantern on a nearby table before parting the curtains open, revealing what stood behind them.

She was startled a bit when the huge painting came into light, as the creatures represented on it almost seemed about to jump on her. She shook her head, chuckling at herself for her brief fear which she blamed on the advanced hour, and the poor lighting given by her lantern.

“.... I wonder what those things are...” she let out softly, picking up her lantern to bring it closer to golden caption of the painting. “....Workers and Drone defending the Hive,” she read out loud before her eyes traced up to the larger monster, which seemed to be called a Drone according to the caption, depicted before her. “... So, a drone is really a big deal here, huh?” she asked herself mirthfully.

“Not really,” Vigil replied in a casual whisper, his mouth millimeters away from the girl’s ear.

“GAAAAH!” the green-haired girl jumped in surprise, almost dropping her lantern on the floor. “Vigil, you scared the crap out of me!” she nearly yelled in reproach, slamming her free hand on her savior’s chest, right where his black protective plate were less thick.

“I figured as much,” Vigil chuckled, unfazed by the hit on his chest. “You hit a bit harder than before. That’s good,” he added with an approving nod, before his, and her gaze travelled back to the painting.

“What are they?” she asked curiously. “I mean, I realized that they are connected to the Hive, but other than that…”

“Those were the real Changelings,” Vigil explained slowly. “Creatures blessed with a very particular kind of magic. A magic that brought them on the top of the food-chain of this continent.”

“What sort of magic?”

“The same magic we use here,” Vigil stated mysteriously as he closed the curtains of the alcove.

“What do you mean?” she asked in confusion. “You mean that those creatures were able to use Equestrian Magic?!”

“Not exactly,” Vigil explained matter-of-factly. “Our order managed to find a way to use a glimpse of those super-predators’ powers.” He pointed at the chitinous, black breastplate he was wearing. “The Black Exoskeleton given to every Drone of our Order.”

“That’s actually the name of those armors?” the girl asked with a cocked eyebrow. “That’s a bit cheesy,”

“We’re a thousand-year-old secret order of spies, and assassins that is active in about every country of Equis,” Vigil reminded slowly. “You should have expected a lot more cheesy than that,” he added, winking playfully.

“Fair enough,” the girl chuckled softly as Vigil invited her to sit at a nearby table. “So, what does your Exoskeleton actually do?”

“It does this,” Vigil stated before turning into the perfect copy of the girl across him in a flash of green light.

“...” the girl blinked in confusion. “How is it different than this?” she asked before she waved her glowing hand before her.

A few seconds later, it looked exactly like Vigil and the girl had simply switched place around the table. Vigil tilted his now womanly face to the right, examining his protegée’s spell with interest. He ended up nodding slowly with a satisfied expression on the girl’s face he was sporting, causing his own face to smile proudly in his direction.

“Pretty good spell,” Vigil commented softly. “How long can you hold it now?”

“Close to thirty, thirty-five minutes,” the girl replied matter-of-factly. “The Swarm-Lady said that my illusions are the best among the Larvas’….” she wanted to add something else, but she ended closing her mouth after a few seconds.

“What about the voice?” Vigil asked casually.

“That’s another story,” the girl explained with a sigh. “Sound magic is apparently a vast and untamed territory of magic according to Red Carnation,” she added with a shrug.

“She’s right,” Vigil agreed with a nod. “Luckily, it never stopped us before,” he added in a voice that made the girl-turned-into-man snapped her head in his direction: her own voice that had come out of Vigil’s throat.

“Wow,” she let out in awe. “... Should have known that you, and the other Swarm-Lords would be able to change your voice with your magic.”

“It’s not our magic,” Vigil explained in the girl’s voice before waving at the disguised girl to come closer. “It’s one of the Exoskeleton’s many proprieties.”

“What do you mean?” the girl asked curiously as she stood up to go to his right side.

“Well, your illusion is just that. An Illusion,” Vigil explained, proving his point by waving his hand at the girl’s disguise face. “Since you’re smaller than me, I can do this...” he added as his hand went through the illusion’s face. “..and, thus blowing your cover. Now try to do that with me.”

The girl nodded slowly before bringing her hand just above the disguised Vigil’s head. Since she was smaller than him, she should be able to touch his head, or another part of his upper body that was hidden by the spell. She let out a confused ‘Huh’ when her hand didn’t reach anything but air above the disguise of herself.

“That’s the difference,” Vigil explained softly. “You simply put a mask of my body around your own whereas I changed mine into yours.” he paused for second before continuing in the girl’s own voice. “And that includes the voice as well.”

“Wow,” she let in awe before stopping her illusion before Vigil changed back to his real self. “How is that possible?”

“The changelings had this affinity with the magic around them,” Vigil started, scratching his chin as he remembered what he knew on the matter. “They could sense it, absorb it, and then mimic it. That’s why they were among the top predators this land has ever known. They would change into any animal they encountered before infiltrating it to feed on their nest, and at each new species they consume, they would change their own bodies, making them stronger, faster, or reinforcing their magic.”

“How come I’ve never heard of such creatures before?” the former-concubine asked.

“They’ve been extinct for centuries now,” Vigil replied laconically. “They started to hunt in some place they weren’t ready for…”

“Which place?”

“The realm of Equestria,” Vigil stated slowly. “Princesses Celestia and Luna wiped out all the hives after the Changelings started to attack their citizens. They basically erased their existence from the land. They’re still mentioned in various history books of old, but that’s all.”

“Then where do those Exoskeletons come from?” the girl asked in confusion, earning a curious look from her savior. “I mean, they’re made of Changelings shells or something like that?”

“Those are forged in the most common steel you could find at any blacksmith,” Vigil replied, poking at his Exoskeleton. ”But you’re right, Changelings are involved in the process of making them.” he stood up and picked up the girl’s lantern. “Come with me!”

“...Okay,” she let out after a few seconds, a bit surprised by his sudden departure.

She followed Vigil through the mazes of corridors that occupied the lower levels of the Hive. As they went deeper below the ground floor, the brick walls around them became roughly digged cave walls. Half an hour after they left the library, the pair stood in front of the a massive, steel made door. Vigil put his hand on the door lock before he turned the lantern off, plunging both of them in a nearly total darkness.

“Why did you do that for?” the girl asked as she heard Vigil unlock the door before her.

“Well, I’m giving you a good tip for once you’re a drone,” Vigil replied with a brief chuckle. “Theatricality is one of your best allies.”

After that, Vigil slowly pulled the door open. As the hinges complained at being put to use, a bright, green light pierced the darkness through the widening opening of the door. The girl had to cover her eyes once the door was fully opened for her, as the light was too bright after being in the dark. As soon as she recovered from being blinded by Vigil’s theatricality, she followed him past the door, and froze immediately after taking one step inside.

Her jaw dropped a couple of inches lower when she saw the inside of the hundred-feet wide cave. More accurately when she saw what was inside the cave, which was also the source of the green light. Said source occupied roughly two thirds of the cave’s total space. Gulping nervously, she approached the large, green, transparent rock, her gaze focused on what lied inside it. The large beast was curled in a ball inside of what seemed to be a cocoon. The twisted, holed horn on its forehead was as tall as Vigil, perhaps even taller. Its open maw was large enough to gobble her up, sporting white fangs that could easily rip her apart should the beast be awake. Her eyes travelled along the tower-sized body of the monster, which was covered in a thick layer of black chitin similar to what Vigil was wearing as an armor. After observing the wings of the creature, the girl finally found the source of the light.

“...Gods,” she let out in shock at the sight of the tiny, white flame line that seemed to consume what remained of the beast rear legs. “How is that possible?”

“It has been written that when facing a lethal wound, a changeling could secrete a rejuvenating cocoon around itself. Thus entering in some sort of stasis until the wound is completely healed.” Vigil explained slowly. “We think that this Behemoth did that after being wounded by Princess Celestia. Sadly for him, the Solar Fire never stops burning until its target is nothing but ashes. Even inside this cocoon. It condemned itself to an eternal slumber, during which its body can only heal itself as fast as it’s getting consumed by the fire.” he added slowly.

“Shouldn’t the fire have burned out inside the cocoon?” the girl asked in a meek, curious voice.

“Had it not been Celestia’s fire, probably,” Vigil supposed with a shrug.

“Why are you showing me this, Vigil?” the girl asked after a few seconds long silence. “I mean, it’s amazing, and everything but what does it have to do with what we’re talking about?”

Vigil replied by changing his right gauntlet into long, and thick black claws before he brought them in contact with the cocoon. With a faint screeching noise, he scratched the translucent green surface with them for a few seconds, making four long cut appear on the formerly smooth cocoon. Then he scraped each claw on the palm of his other hand while the cuts were regenerated in a blink of an eye. Once that was done, he extended his left palm to the girl, showing her a green, crystalline powder.

“This is what we call the Promethean Amber,” Vigil explained as the girl leaned closer to the green powder. “Our smiths have learned to apply it on everything they forged. The amber melt itself into the metal, and changed it over night, causing all the armors, or weapon to look like this.” With his free hand, he pointed at his Exoskeleton’s chest plate. “After that, one Exoskeleton is given to a newly promoted Drone so that it can get used to him or her. Once that step his done, it will obey his thoughts, and change everything its user wants: body shape, body size, voice, it can even be reshaped as weapons, or tools,” he added, nodding at his claw-like gauntlet before it took its original, and rather harmless shape.

“...The Exoskeleton gets used to the Drone?” the girl replied with a cocked eyebrow. “You made it sound like it’s alive…”

“As alive as a tree can be,” Vigil explained with a shrug. “It doesn’t have a conscience if that’s what you meant, but the amber in the metal reacts to the inner magic of the person wielding it, consuming a certain amount of it before it’s in sync with him or her.”

“...And… What happens if the person who tries the Exoskeleton has an underdeveloped inner core?” the girl asked quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. “Like a child for example…”

“The amber consume a certain amount of magic, some time less, some other more,” Vigil explained with a sigh. “If the wielder doesn’t have enough magic inside them to satiate the amber, the amber will take it all, and said wielder will surely die.”

“...That’s certain?”

“Yes,” Vigil replied softly. “It happened to a lot of our recruits back in the time when the magic-sight spell wasn’t invented yet. That was the ultimate trial to become a drone. Thankfully that was a long time ago, and now we don’t waste lives by giving an Exoskeleton to someone who can’t stand it.”

“...Someone like me in short,” the girl let out with sadness, causing Vigil to glance in her direction. “...Carnation said that there are little to no chances that I’m allowed to become a Drone… That I’ll probably spend the rest of my life in the Hive.”

As soon as those words went past her lips the girl leaned her back on a nearby wall, and let herself slide on the ground. Despite her will to find a way to expand her magic, to find a way to explore the world in the search of the Masked Man who had sold her to the Sultan of Nadira, hearing what would most likely happen if she tries had calmed her ardors. The fact that it was Vigil of all people who had told her that was even worse. After all, he had been the one to show her this was one path she could take to get back at the Masked Man. But now that path seemed impossible to walk through, and it was also impossible for her to head back to take a different one.

Sighing longly, the girl brought her palms against her forehead, pushing as hard as she could, almost as if it would make all her ruined hopes go away from her head. It obviously didn’t, and she stopped trying after she heard Vigil crouching next to her. Once she felt his hand gently resting against her shoulder. She felt him squeeze it softly in reassurance before she heard him pull something out from beneath his armor. As Vigil’s hand left her shoulder, something fell on her legs. She looked at it to see a leather-wrapped package the size of her palm on her lap.

“You see, little Concubine,” Vigil said as she examined what he had dropped on her legs, making her scowl by using the nickname Carnation and others used and that she hated more than anything. “You’re a lot like our friend here,” he added, poking at the green cocoon, thus pointing at the massive Changeling inside of it. “Like him you’ve been damaged beyond repair by someone a lot stronger than you. Like him you’ve built a cocoon around you to protect you from anything that might hurt you again. Like for him, your cocoon stops anyone from really learning about you.”

The girl looked at him in confusion before he faced her once again.

“But, what you failed to realize...,” Vigil kept going softly. “...is that, like him, when the time is right you’ll emerge from your chrysalis stronger than you ever thought it possible.” She was about retort, but he silenced her with a wave. “All you need is a little help from the outside.”

As Vigil pointed at the package, the girl opened it, revealing a small vial containing a pure black liquid inside it. She picked it up, and brought it up to her eyes.

“What’s that?” she asked softly.

“The secret of the strongest member our order ever had,” Vigil replied in a whisper. “The source of Thousands Faces Vespid’s fame, and power.”

“...I’ve read about him,” the girl commented slowly, remembering one of the oldest books she had read in her quest for a means to augment her magic. “It’s said that he took care of a warship from Gryffonia by assassinating each member of the crew in a different way over a couple of days.”

“He was quite the assassin,” Vigil added with a nod. “But, he was also a master in alchemy, and his greatest achievement was the potion you’re holding. He used it to enhance his inner core, turning himself into the strongest Eponian of his time.”

“He also lived ages ago,” the girl retorted slowly. “Where did you get this?”

Vigil licked his lips before answering. “Carnation came to me after the first day she trained you,” he explained. “She told me of your growth problem, and that you’d probably not make it to the Drone rank.” He ignored her shocked stare before continuing. “So, I started looking for a solution, and I finally found in Vespid’s secret journal, in which he had written how to brew this potion.”

“.... Why did you start looking for this?” the girl asked in a trembling voice. “Why have you done all what you did for me?”

“Curiosity,” Vigil replied simply as his blue eyes met the green ones of the slightly emotional girl. “In Nadira, I found an intriguing little chrysalis that had nothing to do in this part of the continent… I’m curious of what the little chrysalis will free into this world.”

He heard her sniffing before she wiped her eyes with one arm. She was trying her best to not let him see the remains of her tears in her green gems. He pretended not having seen them, focusing his own eyes on the small vial before the girl did just like him.

“...Is it safe to drink?”

“I don’t know,” Vigil replied sincerely.

“You didn’t drink some yourself?”

“One of the ingredients is extremely rare, and I could brew only one dose, and you need it more than I do.”

“... Are you sure this will work on me?”

“I have no idea,” Vigil admitted slowly.

“...So it could be a powerful poison for all we know,” the girl let out worriedly. “After all, maybe Vespid never wrote down the recipe of his power potion… Or maybe he never needed one…”

“Both scenarios are possible,” Vigil agreed with a slow nod.

“But if I don’t drink it, I’ll never have enough magic power to become a drone, and would have to be a worker here for the rest of my life,” the girl reminded, earning another nod from Vigil. “So, it’s a matter of luck...”

“Basically, yes.”

“Lady Luck and I don’t really have the best track record,” the girl stated with a sigh. “But, I guess that sometimes the Lady’s hand must be forced.”

“Sometimes…”

“Well,” the girl said as she uncorked the vial. “Bottoms up!” she stated as she brought the potion to her lips, before leaning her backwards to swallow it in one gulp.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three years later, Pommel’s workshop in Maris, Prance

“Suri!” Gabrielle Pommel shouted loudly to her assistant as she was busy doing last minutes checks on her dresses before the models would show up for the fashion show. “Where’s my coffee!?”

“Right here, Mrs Pommel,” a nervous, purple haired assistant replied as she sheepishly held a sealed cup from the café across the workshop. “It’s still really hot,” she warned softly as her teal-haired boss violently snatched it out of her grip.

Gabrielle popped the seal off her cup with one flick of her thumb as she took a step back to glanced at the ten dresses on display before her. While taking a long sip of her jumbo-sized coffee, she observed the collection she would have to present in front of the most importants fashionistas of Prance before she turned to her assistant who was glancing at the eleventh dress of the collection with great interest.

“Did you adjust the straps on the dresses the new girl… What’s her name again?... Fleur Delice or something… will wear?” Gabrielle asked before gulping another large portion of her beverage.

“Not at all!” Suri replied with a shrug. “You should have done it yourself.”

“Excuse me?!” Gabrielle snapped after blinking in shock at what Suri had just said. “How dare you talk back to….”

Gabrielle’s scandalized yell died in her throat as she suddenly felt her larynx swelling rapidly. She let go of her cup, and brought her hands to her throat as she started to lack air. Her wedding band felt ten sizes too small, and her sight was partially blinded by her own skin.

“S...Su...Suri….”

Gabrielle tried to call for help by difficulty raising her head toward Suri, only to see another woman where her assistant stood a few seconds earlier.

“Suri’s not here,” the tanned woman with very long, dark green hair said softly as she crouched next to the choking fashion designer. “It’s four in the afternoon as you can see,” she added as she pulled Gabrielle’s swollen eyelids open before she turned her head to look at large clock of the workshop. “She’s probably at school to pick Coco up, as you asked her to this morning… Though, you’ve been so absorbed by tomorrow’s fashion show, which you thought was today, that you’ve spent your whole day here working, so you probably forgot…. Or, maybe I made you forget. I’m confused myself,” she added mirthfully, chuckling melodiously. “Now, you don’t have to worry about your fashion show anymore, since it has just been cancelled,” she added with a patronizing tap on Gabrielle’s puffy right cheek.

The green-haired woman watched the clothes-designer struggling to catch her breath for a good minute before she slowly stopped moving. She put two fingers on Gabrielle’s slightly swollen throat to check her pulse. When there was none, she stood up, and went back to the dress she was examining a few moments ago.

“You know? I think I’m past having you chaperoning me, Vigil. With me being a Swarm Lady, and all that,” the woman said casually, before a tall, muscular head-shaved man stepped out of the shadows at one corner of the workshop.

“Yet, as a Swarm Lady, you picked a job that could have been handled by a newly promoted Drone,” Vigil commented slowly as he walked to the dead body of Gabrielle Pommel. “You’re way too good for such basic contract.”

“And miss Maris’ Fashion Week?!” she asked, cocking an eyebrow at her mentor. “Let me remind you that there’s the word Lady in Swarm Lady.”

“Fair enough, Swarm Lady Chrysalis,” Vigil admitted with a brief chuckle. “How did she die?” he then asked curiously.

“The newspapers will probably write something along the line of: “Fashion Designer commits suicide with her coffee.”” Chrysalis replied casually. “Considering that, barely fifteen minutes ago, many patrons, and a few waiters of the cafe across the street saw Gabrielle Pommel order an extra-large coffee, cream, a double dose of hazelnut syrup with a topping of nut powder.”

“Nuts allergy?” Vigil let out with an appreciative nod.

“Bingo,” Chrysalis said before a faint green flash appeared around her clothing. “So, why are you here if not for checking on me?” she asked curiously as her Exoskeleton took the appearance of the dress on the mannequin before her.

“I came to invite you on a trip to Istalloña,” Vigil replied as Chrysalis watched herself in a nearby mirror. “I found two former sailors who remembered a masked man giving their captain a twelve year old girl to take to Nadira a couple of years ago.”

In the mirror, Vigil saw Chrysalis casual, and curious expression turned into one of pure shock, mixed with a small amount of fear. She turned around as her evening dress turned into the Exoskeleton’s usual appearance. The spikes on her gauntlets the grew to the size of short blades as her eyes radiated with fury, and the need for vengeance: the same radiance Vigil had spotted in them when she took care of Haakim of Nadira.

“Where are they?” Chrysalis asked in a whisper, her voice as cold as ice.

“Mendax, and Clarion are keeping a very close eye on those two men back in Maredrid,” Vigil added slowly as her armor took a more threatening appearance. “Both are waiting for you impatiently.”

Author's Note

There's the next part of Chryssie's life travels.

And soon she'll get back where it all started..

Thanks to PinkieLunaShy, and Batmane of Equestria for their editing job.
Anyway, I hope you liked it, don't hesitate to comment.

Mariacheat-Brony

PS: Here's a thing so that you can estimate where is where: (Equestria is in the north, and the map needs a lot more work hehe :twilightsheepish: )

PPS: source for the "painting"

On the road to Maredrid

Ten years and a half before the Canterlot Wedding, dozens of miles south of the Prance-Istalloña border…

They had left Maris for Maredrid the day before, following the main roads at a fast, but normal pace, to look unsuspicious after Gabrielle Pommel’s death was known, but also for the sake of their horses. Despite the anger boiling inside her, Chrysalis had followed Vigil’s advice on keeping it in check before she finally met two of her many tormentors again. The fact that Vigil had picked Mendax, and Clarion, two of the former’s best Executioners, to watch over them had helped a lot in that.

Vigil recommended to make them rest for a while after he spotted a small grove close to a river, a bit away from the road. Although Chrysalis was impatient to arrive in Maredrid, she didn’t disagree on the fact they, along with their horses, needed rest. As their mounts were busy grazing peacefully close to the water, Vigil leaned against a tree, against which Chrysalis was already sitting, to take a short nap. The Swarm Lord brought his hands behind his head before he noticed the woman sitting just next to him cocking an eyebrow in his direction.

“...What?” he asked in confusion.

“There are other trees,” Chrysalis remarked, waving at the grove around them. “Why do you sit next to me?”

“Maybe because I happen to like having a gorgeous woman next to me when I sleep,” Vigil replied, a mocking smile gracing his face when he saw Chrysalis faintly blush in response. “I’m just a man after all.”

A tanned hand quickly pushed his head away from its owner, making him fall on the side while Chrysalis muttered the word “moron”. Vigil chuckled lightheartedly before sitting back against the tree, only this time he was sitting opposite of his former protégée. Due to her time as a concubine, Chrysalis was really good at pretending to be at ease in men’s company. It was one of her strength as a Changeling: more than a few of her contracts were successful because she knew how to be extremely seductive even without changing her targets’ perception with her magic. Yet whenever Vigil would tease her, she would just get as flustered as a twelve year old girl after her big brother playfully mentioned her crush in front of her.

Grumbling about Vigil’s behavior, Chrysalis tied the horses’ reins to a nearby tree with her levitation magic, and two great lengths of rope. While she did that, Vigil pulled two blankets out of their packages after noticing the winds picking up in intensity as well as the skies becoming cloudier. While he estimated that it would unlikely rain, their break would probably be on the chill side of life. Both wrapped themselves in their respective blanket, and soon enough they were sleeping calmly under the trees.

************

It was a couple of hours later that Chrysalis opened her eyes, feeling that the winds had calmed down after clearing the skies of it’s greyish cover. She blinked a couple of times before noticing that two things were wrong: One, she hadn’t fallen asleep facing the river;Two, a strong arm was lazily resting around her shoulders. She looked to her right, surprisingly seeing Vigil’s sleeping face hang in her direction.

She blushed madly when she remembered she had groggily moved around the tree when she had been feeling too cold on her side. Vigil had groaned when she woke him up with a gentle poke on the shoulder before letting her sit right next to him without a word. Chrysalis remembered scooting closer to his side before they arranged their blankets to wrap them around both of them, and their sleep came back.

Chrysalis would never admit it to anyone, but she enjoyed sleeping next to her past savior. Her sleep was always peaceful whenever Vigil was close, akin to what she used to feel whenever she would sleep next to her mother back in her days in the slums. She knew that some, like her former trainer Red Carnation, thought that Vigil, and herself were a thing, but they all were wrong. Not that Chrysalis’ mind was totally against it as Vigil was quite easy on the eye whenever he took his Exoskeleton off, even though that rarely happened. To parody an often-used saying of her savior: she was just a woman after all.

Five more minutes… Chrysalis whispered in her head before snuggling closer against Vigil’s warm side. Mendax, and Clarion won’t mind waiting five more minutes if they know what’s best for them.

Unfortunately for her, a distant thunderclap brought her out of half-asleep state barely a minute later. Chrysalis pulled her head away from its resting place to look for any storm clouds formation that could be coming their way, only to be puzzled when the sky was as clear as a glass window. When she heard other sounds of thunder a couple of seconds later, she stood up, taking care of not waking up Vigil, to wander in the direction the thunderclaps came from. She walked through the grove until she caught sight of the road below the hill that flanked it. A distant column of smoke caught her attention.

“What do we have here?” Chrysalis let out quietly as she spotted a partially smoking carriage a couple of hundred meters down the road.

Her hand went inside a small satchel she kept at her belt, pulling a small telescope out of it. It took her a few seconds to get the lense focused enough to see what was going on, only let out a calm “huh” of surprise when it was done. Chrysalis instantly identified the coat of arms on the carriage’s flanks as the Crystal Heart of the Mi Amores, the ruling family of Istalloña. She zoomed out a little bit to witness the escort of the carriage fighting off waves of bandits that came rushing out of the two groves from each side of the roads. Chrysalis wasn’t all that surprised of the attack itself, as tensions between the nobility and the small folks were high since the building of the railways connecting Istalloña to Equestria has been put on hold for a few years now.

“....Should have given whoever is in that carriage a bigger escort,” Chrysalis commented professionally as the fifteen or so heavily armored soldiers pained to contain the onslaught of the badly equipped, but much more numerous peasants. “They’ll reach the carriage soon…”

Chrysalis’ prediction came true a few seconds later when a Jupitarian attacker flew to the driver seat of the carriage, which had been vacant after another Jupitarian tackled the driver off of it. He cracked the reins strongly, causing the four horses to lunge forward before anyone could stop them. The sudden start of the carriage broke the defenders’ formation, making it more difficult for them to fend off the raiders, and impossible to stop the carriage. As the carriage rode along the road, a couple of peasants managed to jump on it, one of them reaching for the right door of it.

“Ouch! That must have hurt,” Chrysalis commented calmly as she witnessed the attacker getting shoved off the carriage after a small case was thrown in his face from inside the door’s window.

A few moments later, the carriage passed closely to the grove from which Chrysalis was observing the scene. When it did, the passenger jumped out of it, surprising the three peasants still on it who jumped off the carriage twenty or thirty meters down the road while their Jupitarian driver was oblivious to that, and kept going forward. Pulling her telescope away, Chrysalis slightly hid behind a tree, her green gaze focused on the young girl who had jumped out of the carriage.

Her pink summer dress had been partially torn when she rolled over in the grass to soften her jump, and thus was maculated by brown, and green stains. She pushed her messy, long pink, cream, and purple hair out of her face before she pulled herself up, and ran up the small hill to reach for the grove. Chrysalis watched the girl, who looked to be not older than fifteen year old, running as fast as she could to the relative safety of the grove while her pursuers were slowly gaining on her. The Swarm Lady also noticed that carriage had been pulled to stop, and that its Jupitarian driver had taken off of it.

Chrysalis kneeled down in a nearby bush as the girl ran past her, zigzagging through the trees until Chrysalis lost sight of her. Soon after, the Jupitarian, and his three comrades rushed into the grove, muttering curses or lewd comments about the princess they were after. She was about to get back to Vigil when she heard a feminine voice shouting in distress.

“No! Let me go! Please!” the girl called in pleading tone. “Get off me! Get off me!”

Chrysalis stopped in her tracks instantly at those words. Those words were familiar, as she had said them many times on a ship that sailed to Nadira eleven years ago. She remembered clearly the four men that had surrounded her back then, but for a moment she forgot that two of them were in Maredrid waiting for her. She turned around, and rapidly walked toward where the screams came from.

Quickly after her change of direction, she found the three grounded attackers standing around a thick tree on top of which the princess was holding onto the branch while the Jupitarian was pulling her away from it. Chrysalis growled in anger at the sight of the terrorized young face, imagining it it had been hers once. A ball of green fire formed itself in her palm before she hurled it on the back of the winged attacker.

He screamed in pain, and fear when the emerald colored flames spread to his hair, shoulders, and to his feathery wings before he let go of the girl to fall on the ground. Chrysalis then demanded her Exoskeleton to form blade-shaped spines from her wrist-bands, which it did instantly. Before any of the other three could turn around, she plunged the one on her right wrist deep inside the closest’s back, making the blade come out in the middle of his chest.

Chrysalis aimed her left blade to the throat of another raider, slicing it open before he could completely turn around to see what was going on. She freed her right blade by pushing the impaled one with a strong shove of her leg, and then faced the last man who had chased the princess to the grove.

He scaredly threw a beam of Titanian magic that she brushed aside with one calm swift of her now freed blade. As she took one step in his direction, he jumped backwards before throwing another beam at her, which she deflected again as if it was nothing but a speck of dust. Once he had been driven against a thick trunk, he cast as many magic projectile he could, though none of them reached their target.

She crossed her arms against his chest when he raised his to surrender, making the blades graze both sides of his throat. Chrysalis raised her right eyebrow a bit when she spotted tears of terror in his eyes.

“.... I yield… Have mercy, please..” he whimpered in desperation.

“..... hmmmmm.” Chrysalis let out as she pondered over his demand for a few seconds, before she took her blades away from his throat by taking a few steps back . “You and your friend ganged up against a terrorized little girl…. I don’t give mercy to rapists.”

The glimpse of hope that lit up his face when he saw her taking a step back didn’t get the time to return to his fearful expression before the two blades cut his head off. She humphed disdainfully as her wrist-blades took back their casual wristbands appearance, turning back to the princess in the tree.

The fifteen year-old was about to let go of the branch that kept her in the canopy when Chrysalis caught her in green magic. Surprised by the levitation field surrounding her, the young princess screamed once again in fear, probably thinking it was another raider. Holding her ear in discomfort, Chrysalis levitated the girl down while making her look in her direction. As she stopped her spell, the girl saw Chrysalis, and the dead bodies of her attackers, and her screams came to a stop.

“....you...You saved me?” the princess asked in a shocked whisper.

“I guess so,” Chrysalis let out calmly before the young girl shoved her head against her chest. “HEY! WHA…”

“...Thank you,” the girl’s muffled voice whimpered in between soft sobs. “...thank you.”

Chrysalis was shocked to hear the girl crying against her chest in apparent relief, but what shocked her more was to see herself rest her hand on the girl’s head. Even more so when started to gently pat it comfortingly, but she brushed that shock deep inside her mind. Instead of acting shocked about it, Chrysalis said the words she had always wanted to hear in the past.

“It’s okay, little girl,” Chrysalis whispered in a gentle tone, hugging back the princess delicately. “You’re safe now.”

They remained like that for a good minute or two, Chrysalis waiting patiently for the young girl to calm down. It was obvious that Vigil had heard what happened, and was probably watching them from the shadows after having realized it would be best for him to do so. The princess softly pulled away from their hug, causing Chrysalis to look down in time to see her brushing the tears away from her purple eyes.

“...Sorry about that,” the princess sheepishly whispered. “I shouldn’t have done that with a total stranger….”

“I can’t totally disagree with you,” Chrysalis let out with a warm chuckle. “But believe me, sometimes you just need to be held by someone.” When the princess nodded with a small smile, Chrysalis continued. “Besides, if we introduce each other, we wouldn’t be strangers anymore, right?”

“I...I suppose,” the princess agreed softly. “I’m C…”

At that moment, Chrysalis heard the sound of a teleportation spell just behind her. She turned around quickly, only to have the end of a spear a few inches away from her throat. The spearman that was threatening was wearing a heavy suit of of armor without the matching helmet, which he had probably been taken off during the fight against the raiders, and carrying a large, round shield that bore the heraldic of a golden namesake surrounded by a faint halo. The spearman barely looked older than the princess herself, with two-toned blue hair cut military-short, and his dark brown face sporting a couple of discrete pimples.

“Step away from Princess Cadenza!” he ordered slowly, his voice cold, and threatening.

“Shining, it’s fine!” The princess apparently named Cadenza called as she stepped out from behind Chrysalis. “She rescued me! She’s a good person!”

Well, that’s usually a matter of point of view…. But, for the sake of the discussion, let’s roll with that, Chrysalis thought as she kept an unimpressed expression.

“Princess, please come here,” Shining demanded softly, his eyes narrowed at Chrysalis. “We don’t know who she’s… She could be part of the attack for all we know…”

“Shining please,” Cadenza let out softly as she rested her hand on Shining’s spear holding shoulder. “I know you’re looking out for me, but I can assure you she’s not related to those raiders… If she hadn’t intervened, I’d probably be off Gods know where.”

“Indeed,” Chrysalis commented softly, resting the tip of her finger on the end of the spear. “Listen to your girlfriend, Golden Shield boy. She’s got common sense at least,” she added as she gently pushed the weapon away from her. “And put your toy away, you’re going to poke someone’s eye out with it.”

Cadenza, and Shining’s cheeks turned red at what she had just said before they started mumbling incoherently about relationships not being proper, being too young, or too busy. When they calmed down, Shining insisted on them joining back the rest of the Princess’ escort, prompting Cadenza into inviting Chrysalis in her carriage after the latter mentioned she was heading for the Istalloñan Capital. An offer that Chrysalis accepted after a short reflexion.

“...You won’t mind riding alongside knights of the Golden Shield, right Vigil?” Chrysalis asked once the two youngsters were out of hearing.

“Considering you’re going to do the rest of the trip in a comfortable carriage, then yes. I will mind,” Vigil replied matter-of-factly as he stepped out from behind a nearby tree. “I wonder what those Equestrian Knights are doing here escorting that princess though.”

“Isn’t Istalloña under Equestria’s Protectorate?” Chrysalis asked casually. “That shouldn’t be all that surprising to see some of its military here.”

“It is, but the ruling Prince messed up when he cancelled the railway project after politely asking Princess Celestia to shove her rails where her glorious sun never shines,” Vigil explained softly. “According to the rumors, that is…”

“Why did he do that?” Chrysalis asked in confusion as they turned to head for their camp side. “Economically speaking, that can only be good for the Principality,” she added after passing by the burned Jupitarian

“No idea. Maybe you’ll find out more about it in your ride with his daughter.” Vigil’s boot glowed green before a dozen of sharp spikes appeared on its sole. “By the way, here’s a quick reminder…” he said as he slammed his foot on the back of the burned man’s neck, causing him to let out soft whimpers of pain that were muffled by his own blood. “Burning still doesn’t mean killing, Chrysalis.”

“I had to let you do something, right?” Chrysalis asked back with a shrug as Vigil’s boot took its original shape back. “You would have complained if I hadn’t left one for you.”

“Hm!” Vigil let out with a laid-back nod while the gargles of dolor came to a stop behind them. “I suppose you’re right.”

Author's Note

There you go, how Chryssie met Cadence. It's shorter than I first planned, but I think it was a good thing to stop there for now.

In the next chapter, Chryssie will finally meet two of her past tormentors, and possibly get a lead to the Masked Man...

Thanks to Batmane of Equestria, and Royal Rainbow for pre-reading this chapter ^^

Hope you liked it, and don't hesitate to comment on this.

Mariacheat-Brony

PS: More info on the changeling Hive here

Finally back home

Ten years and a half before the Canterlot Wedding, on the road to Maredrid…

“Excuse me? Miss Chrysalis?” a gentle, soft voice gently pulled the green-haired woman out of her slumber.

Groaning scruffily as she rubbed her shoulders against the more than comfortable padding of her seat, Chrysalis wondered where she was for a few seconds before she opened her eyes. She felt a delicate finger softly poke at her shoulder as her blurry vision became clearer at every passing second. Before she knew it, her eyes were focused on the heart-shaped face of a fifteen, or sixteen year old girl with long locks of blonde, pink and purple hair.

“Did you sleep well?” the girl, whom Chrysalis remembered being named Cadenza, asked with a warm, sincere smile.

“So well that I might consider stealing this carriage to live in it, Princess,” Chrysalis stated as she sat straight up while repressing a very long yawn that tried to escape her throat.

“Hehehe,” Cadenza giggled playfully behind her palm. “Shining told me that we should arrive in Maredrid very soon, so I thought it would be the right time to wake you up,” she explained in a matter-of-fact tone.

“You did well,” Chrysalis nodded with a smile. “Like that Vigil and I can leave you alone as soon as we enter the city.”

“You know that my invitation to the castle still stands, right?” Cadenza reminded the green-haired woman. “I’m sure my family would be greatly interested in meeting my rescuer,” she added with a grateful smile.

“I’m honored, Princess…”

“Please, just call me Cadenza or even Cadence as my friends in Canterlot call me,” Cadenza interrupted her softly.

“All right, Cadenza, but drop the Miss with me,” Chrysalis retorted with a wink. “As for what I was saying, I’m honored that you’ve invited me, but Vigil and I must take care of very important business in Maredrid as soon as we arrive into the city,” she explained in a casual tone. “Especially since we left Maresaglia one day later than planned,” she added, letting out a long sigh.

That wasn’t the whole truth of course, as Chrysalis and Vigil departed from another Prench town without any plans whatsoever, but the young princess didn’t need to know that. A couple of hours ago, the young princess had turned the topic conversion to what Chrysalis did for a living, and had been really excited when she learned that Chrysalis and Vigil were a duo of mercenaries that roamed the continent in search for jobs and contracts. Another half truth Chrysalis had served to the oblivious princess who had taken it with a lot of fascination.

“Maybe when your business is done, then?” Cadenza asked in a hopeful whisper, granting the older woman of a trembling lower lips and the biggest puppy eyes she had ever seen.

“I suppose that could be possible,” Chrysalis replied, playfully chuckling. “I can’t guarantee it though.”

“I understand,” Cadenza conceded slowly. “After all, business is business, as my Father says,” she added casually.

“Exactly,” Chrysalis agreed with a nod.

“I’ll just give your and Vigil’s names and descriptions to the castle guards and inform them that you’re to be lead to me. Should you have the time for a visit of course,” Cadenza added with excitement.

“I’ll remember that, Princess Cadenza,” Chrysalis bowed her head gently at the teenager across.

“I told you already to forget about the ‘Princess’, Miss Chrysalis,” Cadenza reminded, shaking her finger in mock disapproval.

Chrysalis couldn’t stop herself from laughing heartily at the not-really-disapproving royal in front of her. Cadenza quickly joined in her laughter before a metallic knock came from the curtained window of the carriage. Taking a deep breath while resting her palm on her chest, only to exhale as she moved her hand away instantly after, Cadenza calmed herself before opening the window.

“Princess, we’re about to pass Celestia’s Gate,” Shining’s voice warned softly. “Now might be a good time for your guest to get down the carriage,” he added matter-of-factly.

“Thank you, Shining,” Cadenza replied with a wide smile before she closed the window. “Looks like it’s time for us to part ways,” she said to the green-haired woman.

“I guess it is,” Chrysalis said in a genuine sadness at the prospect of leaving. The comfort of carriage aside, spending time with the young princess had been really entertaining. “Until we meet again, Cadenza,” she said, extending her hand as she stood up. “Hopefully, I’ll not have to save you next we see each other.”

“We can only hope,” Cadenza replied softly as she ignored the extended hand to hug her rescuer one more time. “Again, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, little girl,” Chrysalis said gently before she leaned close to the princess’ ear. “You should ask your Knight-boy to teach you how to fight. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind training you in wrestling,” she added in a low purr, causing the young girl’s cheeks to take a deep crimson shade as she stepped outside of the carriage.

After one last wave to the flustered princess, Chrysalis stepped away from the carriage so that it could go on its way. Chrysalis noticed Shining Armor cast a watchful gaze in her direction from his horse as the escort started to move through the Eastern gate of Maredrid’s defensive walls. Chrysalis calmly crossed her arms as she cocked her eyebrow at the young knight before her, clearly not impressed at all. That lasted until Vigil lead his horse and Chrysalis’, which had its reins attached to the back of the former’s saddle, in between them.

“Is there a problem, boy?” Vigil asked in a casual tone, though his eyes were throwing icy spikes at the blue-haired knight.

Vigil and Chrysalis both noticed Shining’s grip on his spear tighten in frustration while he kept his face impassible. During the day they had travelled together, Vigil had been adamant into calling Initiate Shining Armor by the appellation boy whereas everyone else called him by his name or title, something the concerned party clearly hadn’t appreciated one bit. Letting out a dismissive snort at the two supposed-mercenaries, the young knight lead his horse after the Princess’ carriage.

“He could have at least said goodbye,” Chrysalis falsely complained with a shrug. “I did save his princess after all.”

“Maybe that’s why he didn’t,” Vigil supposed as Chrysalis climbed on top of her horse. “You stole his thunder by saving Prince Fortissimo’s daddy’s girl before he could,” he reminded casually, untying Chrysalis’ reins from his saddle with his magic.

“That or maybe because you spend the last day probably annoying him,” Chrysalis retorted calmly after catching the reins Vigil had thrown at her. “That fifteen-year-old-teenager’s angry glare seemed more aimed at you than at me,” she remarked as they both started to ride slowly toward the city’s Eastern gate once she had climbed on her saddle.

“Most likely,” Vigil replied matter-of-factly. “Though, for the record, the boy’s eighteen, not fifteen.”

“Really now?!” Chrysalis let out in a surprised tone. “I guess the princess really likes older boys,” she added with a warm chuckle.

Vigil rolled his eyes at his younger partner before they rode into the city through Celestia’s Gate. As a large deal of the nearby crowd was busy following the Princess’ carriage, the two Changelings had no trouble circulating in the city’s streets without having to dismount their horses. After a few minutes of riding, Vigil glanced in Chrysalis’ direction, immediately noticing how tense she was. Her grip on the reins was so tight that it would mark her palms for hours. Her posture was so stiff that she looked like a post sticking out of the horse’s back. Her eyes were filled with a mix of apprehension and fear, nothing like that strong and alluring confidence that usually shone in them. It only became worse when they had to ride through the slums to meet up with their contacts on the docks.

Chrysalis pulled her horse to a stop as they were about to pass by the market place. There were less stalls than what she remembered, and they all looked seemingly less supplied than in the past. When Vigil waved for her to move on, Chrysalis slowly followed suit. The two riders attracted the gaze of the merchants, all of them looking up to them with desperate hope. Chrysalis kept her face impassible, seemingly looking at her destination while she observed all the merchants, who tried to attract her and Vigil with their products, from the corner of her eyes. She felt her heart coming to an abrupt stop when she recognized some of them: the baker who had always let her buy his bread cheaper when her mother was sick, the woman from the clothing stall who had helped her with the costumes for her little shows, the flower-lady who had taken her as an apprentice for a time…

None of them recognized her, even though she had spent almost everyday of her childhood with them, but she didn’t blame them for that. It was probably better that, and it seemed like the years during which she had been gone were quite tough: not even ten years had passed since her last day in the slums of Maredrid, but all of them looked like they had aged a good thirty, if not more. The market used to be cheerful, the actually lively part of the slums where friends would chat together, jokes would be cracked at the fishmonger for his ‘fresh’ products, children would play around the stalls and thus earning the warning shouts of the merchants. Now, all what she remembered this place to be was gone, and had been for a very long time.

As the two riders seemed uninterested by what they had to offer, the merchants went back to their business and let them continue on their way. Once they were a few streets away from the market place, Vigil looked back at Chrysalis, seeing her rub her eyes softly. While he didn’t actually believed her when she told she had a bit of dust in her eyes, Vigil nodded calmly at her before turning back to the road. Though he decided to take the longer road to Clarion and Mendax’s hideout, leaving Chrysalis with enough time to recover from her non-existent tears.

********************************************

“Swarmlord,” Clarion whispered with a bow as Vigil entered through the back door of an abandoned warehouse of the docks, Chrysalis entering just behind him. “My Lady,” he added with another bow when he noticed her.

“Where are they?!” Chrysalis asked urgently before Vigil or his Executioner could say anything, a dark anger filling her voice.

“In the warehouse’s office,” Clarion replied calmly as he closed and locked the door. “Mendax’s keeping a close eye on them, as Swarmlord Locust instructed us to,” he stated as he lead his two superiors through the dusty shelves full of abandoned junk.

“How are they?” Vigil asked calmly.

“We gave them just enough food and water to survive,” Clarion explained in a cold matter-of-fact tone. “We also kept them blindfolded, and we’ve never talked to either of them since you left them with us,” he said to Vigil, earning an appreciative nod from Chrysalis. “Also, Mendax has been playing with them a little,” the Executioner added with a mischievous grin as they reach for the office’s door.

“I hoped they’re not damaged!” Chrysalis snarled in a warning tone.

“Don’t worry,” Clarion said in reassurance. “I sense you’re going to like how Mendax played with them,” he claimed as he slowly opened the door that lead to the warehouse’s office.

Said office looked nothing like an office and more like a workshop. Sure, there were tables and chairs in the spacious room, but a large set of tools hung from the walls or were displayed on the nearby tables : complete sets of dusty hammers, various-sized pairs of rusty tongs, dozens of brownish screwdrivers, old belt sanders and the many sanding belts that went with them. Close to the door, they found Mendax sitting casually on the cleanest table, which didn’t mean much to be honest, juggling a small knife in the air before he throw it violently across the room. After a sharp whistle, the small blade lodged itself in the wooden wall with a loud thud, millimeters away from the right ear of one of the two men attached to their chairs at the end of the room. Both men, who had been blindfolded, gagged and obviously malnourished, had jumped and trembled at the sound of the blade meeting the wood.

Silently, Mendax saluted the two Swarmlords before he went to get his blades back. He passed between the two tafels at which each of the prisoners had their respective hands shackled to, and started to pull the dozen of knives off the walls, each blade dangerously close from the prisoners’ head, arm or other parts. The noises he made caused Mendax’s toys to shiver in fright. From the many holes she could see in the walls and in the tables, Chrysalis supposed that Mendax must have been playing since Vigil went to look for her.

Vigil signaled Mendax to leave the room along with Clarion with a single nod towards the door. While putting his knives away, Mendax walked to the door, bowing slightly to Chrysalis in passing as she gave a him a proud tap on the shoulder. Once the two Executioners were out of the room, Chrysalis closed the door behind them. She heard their footsteps getting further away and quieter every second until nothing but a religious silence filled the room. Vigil and Chrysalis brief looked into each other’s eyes before Vigil pointed at himself with a questioning expression on his face. Chrysalis slowly nodded in response as she softly hugged her elbows while leaning against the wall. Casting a last glance at his former-protegée, Vigil walked to the table of the thinnest man of the two prisoners, his hand going for an iron flask inside his satchel.

“Though week, huh?” Vigil asked, startling the prisoners quite a bit. “Being pulled away from prison, only to be even more prisoners than when you were in it…. Thirsty?” he asked slowly, waving the flask in front of the man’s face, thus making him hear the liquid inside of it.

When the thin man slowly nodded, Vigil uncorked the flask and pulled the rag Mendax or Clarion had used for a gag down. He then brought the flask to the prisoner’s lips, allowing him to drink the clear water it contained. As the thin man let out a quiet sigh of a relief after quenching his thirst a little, Vigil asked the same thing to the other prisoner, who quickly nodded in response.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you both a few things,” Vigil said softly as he pulled the flask away from the larger man.

“....About what?” the thin man asked in a worried tone.

“Well, mostly about yourselves,” Vigil replied casually as he magicked the two blindfolds off the prisoners’ face. “Let’s start with your names, shall we?”

The two men blinked many times after finally seeing something else that the dark cloth that had covered their eyes for days. Once they were used to seeing again, both looked in Vigil’s direction as he sat casually between the two tables, before they took a look at their surroundings, thus seeing the cloaked figure of Chrysalis - she had pulled her cloak over to mask herself from their sight just before Vigil took their blindfolds off - against the far wall of the dusty workshop. Sensing them getting tense at the sight of Chrysalis, Vigil cleared his throat to return their attention on himself.

“....Guy,” the thin man replied slowly. “Guy la Longue-vue,” he added before Vigil’s commanding eyes.

“Robert Starboard,” the bigger prisoner answered in a small voice, completely out of place in his throat.

Vigil could see that the two men were clearly intimidated by his presence, not that he didn’t understand why nor that he was surprised by it. Robert seemed even more scared than his smaller fellow prisoner, whom he kept casting discreet glances at ever since Vigil pulled the blindfolds away. That made Vigil suppose that Guy was the leader, and Robert the follower.

“What were you doing as a job?” Vigil asked curiously.

“We worked on a ship,” Robert replied slowly as Guy seemed to think about whether or not he should reply, his voice shaking at every word. “I was a sailor… Guy was my captain.”

“Figured with names like these,” Vigil commented for himself before facing the former ship captain. “So you had a ship before?” he asked the man with long, messy, greying hair.

“Ye-yes. A small caravelle,” Guy replied in whisper.

“You must have travelled quite a lot then,” Vigil said casually. “Have you had the chance to sail to Zebrica?”

“...Once, but we mostly traded goods with Saddle Arabian and Prench ports,” Guy explained slowly.

“What about Camelu? It’s just a bit further South than Saddle Arabia, surely you must have been there.”

“Occasionally,” Guy replied as Robert started to become tenser since Vigil mentioned the Sultanates. “Lots of exotic fruits and spices there… Istalloñans were crazy about those back then.”

“From what you told me, you seemed like honest merchants of the sea,” Vigil stated, joining his hands to rest his chin on them. “So tell me, how come I had to pull the two of you out of this country’s most secure prison?”

“We… We were scammed by one of our customers,” Guy replied after a few seconds, but Vigil’s eyes were focused on Robert’s shivering form. “We made a few deliveries for him in various ports, and one day when we returned to Maredrid, the guards arrested us as soon as we docked. It turned out that his crates were loaded with illegal stuff.”

“What sort of illegal stuff?” Vigil asked, his eyes focused on Robert, who pointedly looked away from him. “... Alcools? Drugs? Stolen goods?”

“A little bit of those, yeah,” Guy replied slowly. “Our customer had of course disappeared during our last travel, and they didn’t believe us about his existence, so we…”

“Amazing!” Vigil let out suddenly with a half-hearted chuckle. “Simply amazing.”

“...What?” Guy asked in confusion. “What is?”

“It’s amazing that you thought it would a good idea to lie to me after five days in this room!” Vigil explained, still chuckling warmly even if his eyes were as cold as two blocks of ice. “I know perfectly why you and your crew were arrested nine years ago! I’m very much aware of what you were delivering to Nadira before the Guard caught you! I wouldn’t have waste the time needed to get you two out of prison, if I hadn’t known all of that!”

“Then… why did you bring us here?” Robert asked as Guy only gaped at Vigil.

“Your customer… That masked man whom the authorities refused to believe he even existed,” Vigil stated slowly. “I want to know everything you can tell me about him.”

“... We worked with him for a couple of years,” Robert began in a sheepish tone. “Always the same job, but to different places.”

“Rob! Shut up! We could get hanged for th…”

“Hanging would be your main worry if I were to work for the Istalloñan authorities,” Vigil let out sternly, interrupting Guy with a wave of hand. “Robert, you were saying?”

“...He would bring a kid to us and each time he did, he instructed us to sell him or her somewhere far from Maredrid,” Robert explained, disgust obvious in his voice as he was shaking nervously. “All was always arranged before his visits: destinations, contact, how much we would get paid by said contact, how much he expected to have as a share… We really only have to sail there with girl or the boy he would give us.”

“...He sent you sell children all over the seas?” Vigil asked in shock. “Why?”

“Whenever he came, he would only talk to Guy,” Robert replied slowly. “But I don’t think he ever told him why.”

“No, he didn’t,” Guy admitted, gulping nervously at the cold stare which came from Vigil. “He never told me anything about them.”

“How many?!” an angry voice growled from the far end of the room.

“.....” Guy opened his mouth at the cloaked figure of Chrysalis, who had moved away from the wall.

“How many of these children have you and your crew of filthy degenerates brought to a life of slavery?! How many peaceful lives have you destroyed for a bunch of coins?! How many dreams and existences did you ruin because of your greed?!” she snapped, her eyes glowing in a green fire from beneath her hood. “HOW MANY?!!!” She barked furiously, slamming her closed fists on Guy’s table, causing green flames to scorch its surface.

“I don’t know!” Guy replied loudly, as the green fire licked the tip of his fingers. “I never really payed attention! It was just business, okay?!” he cried as it burned off the hair of his hands, as he tried to pull them away from the fire. “They were just a bunch of street rats from the slums! Nobody cared for them in the first place!”

Guy shook like a leaf at the sight of his blistering hand, his face twisted in pain as he started to beg for her to stop. Vigil had stood up from his chair after Chrysalis had rushed to them, and had decided to take her place at the end of the room. Nothing short to a miracle would stop her now, even more so with Guy’s last remark. The thin man’s scream of pain as the fire ravaged his forearms, igniting his dirty clothes, were so loud and sickening that Vigil thought of putting an end to his misery for a second. Just for a second though.

“FI..FIFTEEN!” Robert shouted in terror, trying to be heard over his former captain’s screams. “THERE WERE FIFTEEN!”

Vigil blinked in stupor as he witnessed the flames threatening Guy vanish from the table and his clothes instantly after Robert’s shout. The burn marks on the table had also disappeared, same for the damages on Guy’s ragged clothes and the blisters on his arms. It had been nothing more than an illusion, an illusion so realistic that it had managed to deceive Vigil as easily as the two prisoners.

She’s become really good. Vigil thought while watching Chrysalis slowly turning toward Robert, thus leaving a whimpering Guy cradling his un-burned limbs. A lot more than I realized. he added mentally in an admirative tone.

“Fifteen?” Chrysalis asked, her voice low and cold as ice.

“Yes.” Robert gulped with a nod. “Eight boys and seven girls over six years.”

“Eight boys and seven girls,” Chrysalis repeated softly in a single breath, earning a slow, ashamed nod from Robert.

Chrysalis breathed in and out a couple of times before her hands went to her hood. She slowly pulled it down before the two prisoners. As her dark skin, green hair, and face came into view, Chrysalis’ mind flashed moments of her time with both of them and some other members of the crew. As she left the sanctuary of her hood, Chrysalis relived all what they had done to her: Her wrists burned from her attempts to escape their much stronger grips as they were holding her down, her legs ached from the strength they had used to keep them open, her skin felt dirtier than ever from their invasive touches, her throat hurt for they forced her to do to them, her voice faded from screaming for them to stop. They never stopped : every morning, they came back to the deck where they had kept her for more.

“...Do you know who I am?” Chrysalis asked, her voice shockingly soft and demure. “Do you remember?” she asked, her hurtful, green eyes locked into Robert’s.

Robert held her gaze for a few seconds before tears started to roll out of his eyes as he nodded once in response. Guy had just started to shake even more violently than after he had been convinced that he was being burned alive by the green-haired woman’s magic. Vigil observed the scene for a brief instant before heading out of the workshop.

“The masked-man,” Chrysalis whispered as Vigil closed the door behind him, leaving her alone with her former tormentors. “How can I find him?”

“...... He took off one of his gloves once,” Robert replied, not managing to stop his shameful tears. “He had a ring on his left middle-finger… A massive, golden signet ring, like those the high-nobles of Maredrid have.” Chrysalis nodded slowly at him before bursted out sobbing loudly. “I’m sorry...I’m sorry...I’m sorry,” he repeated it many times in between his sobs and whimpers.

“I believe you,” Chrysalis replied in a sincere, gentle tone as her Exoskeleton morphed her gauntlets into long, sharp claws. “...But it won’t save you.”

*****************************************************

A massive, black-furred dog walked around the sinuous streets of the slums, its snout lowered close to the ground, obviously searching for something. As it passed in front of a lousy tavern, a couple of drunkards wobbled near it before one of them lost his footing and landed heavily on its head. Out of reflex, the dog yapped in pain after jumping away from the alcohol-imbibed man while he and his companion laughed their asses out at it. Though that was until it started growling at them. It bared its long, sharp fangs at the pair of drunks, a small puff of vapor escaping its throat while his dark blue eyes looked down at the fallen man. It sharply and violently snapped his jaws around the reddish nose of the drunkard, prompting a sinister crack out of him as well as frightened scream. The still-standing man sobered up a bit at the sight of the large dog mauling his friend’s face, and tried to pull him away in terror, calling back at the tavern for help. When a few patrons stumbled out of the establishment, he looked back at the dog, only to see a tiny kitten strutting away from them into an adjacent alley.

Stupid boozehounds! They almost made lose her scent! Vigil thought angrily, bringing his moustached nose close to the ground and hearing from afar the two drunks being belittled for being terrorized by a kitten. Damn, I forgot the nose of a cat is lousy compared to a dog's... I'll change back in a couple of streets.

As his thoughts dictated, Vigil followed the track for a couple of streets before reverting back to his massive canine form after being certain no one was looking. He instinctively let out a happy bark as the scent finally became as clear as before his encounter in front of the tavern. He had been following that scent for almost an hour, and he felt like his track was coming to an end. Vigil calmly trotted across the marketplace, drawing a two-seconds-long-glance from a sleepy merchant who was about to enter his caravan, before he started to run. The scent had become stronger: that could only mean that she was very close to him. He ran to an empty spot next to the relatively clean flower stall. Sniffing repeatedly, Vigil circled in the small spot a couple of times.

She remained here for a bit... He thought as its dog-shaped head raised itself to the skies, flaring his nostrils. ...That way! Vigil shouted in his head, bolting into an alley to the right of the flower stall.

The scent grew stronger as he ran out of the marketplace through one of its southern alleys. Vigil ran as fast as his strong paws could carry him for a couple of minutes before he came to a sharp stop after a turn, staring at a small abandoned house. He slowly approached its dusty door and pressed his snout against it. As it gave him no resistance at all, Vigil opened it further, just enough for him to enter. Once inside, he pushed the door closed before taking his usual appearance and looking around.

He stood in the middle of a ruined livingroom. A thick layer of dust and many cobwebs covered the remaining, busted furnitures. Drawers had been pulled out of the cupboards and thrown across the floor. Cabinet’s doors were open wide, exposing nearly-empty shelves on top of which laid broken pieces of various dishes. Vigil figured that this house must have been plundered years ago as he spotted a trail of familiar footprints in the dust. The Changeling Swarmlord followed the trail into a narrow corridor, then into a small room at the end of it. That was where he found Chrysalis.

She was sitting against the northern wall, her crossed forearms leaning on top of her knees as she stared at a small hole in the opposite wall, just next to a worn-out child-sized bed. The green-haired woman ignored him as he walked up to her side. With the faint moonlight that came from the small window of the room, Vigil could notice that Chrysalis was covered from head to toes in dried blood. He didn’t ask if she was wounded for he perfectly knew that she wasn’t. He had seen the state in which she had left of Guy and Robert a couple hours ago: Clarion and Mendax had jokingly bantered that it would have been probably faster to burn the whole warehouse down instead of trying to clean the workshop.

“I’ve been used to better from you,” Vigil stated calmly as he sat next to her. “It was awfully easy for me to find your hiding place.”

“....Maybe I wasn’t hiding,” Chrysalis replied slowly in a monotonous voice.

“Possibly,” Vigil replied with a shrug, taking a glance at his former protégée’s state. “You’re starting to smell bloody,” he commented, nodding at the brown stains of blood on her cheeks and in her hair. “You probably already do for a dog.”

His comment didn’t raise any reaction from her and Vigil didn’t press her for one. He got settled against the wall before pulling a small cloth from one of the pouches at his belt. Vigil casually dropped the piece of fabric on Chrysalis’ arm, finally earning a glance from the Swarmlady. Under her questioning look, he rubbed his own cheek with his forefinger, at the same spot as the large stain of blood on her own cheek. Silently, she took the cloth and proceeded in slowly cleaning her face. After she cleaned her left cheek, Chrysalis pulled the now-bloodied cloth away from her face. She stared the brownish red stains on it for a few seconds and then worked on her other cheek, her hand and lips quivering as tears started to roll out of her green eyes.

“It’s okay,” Vigil whispered tenderly as he instantly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close at the first sob. “I’m here,” he added in a gentle whisper as Chrysalis leaned her head against his torso, her crying growing in intensity.

After she had shown her face to Robert and Guy, everything they had done to her had slowly but surely resurfaced from the depths of her mind. For the first time since the fateful night during which she met Vigil, Chrysalis had lost control and abandoned herself to a moment of violent retribution. A retribution which she still bore the results all over her body. Yet, the blood covering her had nothing to do with how tainted she felt since her former-tormentors’ pleading shouts came to a stop hours ago.

“I thought getting rid of them would make it all go away but it didn’t,” Chrysalis explained in a shaken voice.

“Chrys…” Vigil began as while Chrysalis pulled away from him, tears still flowing out of her eyes.

At the sight of the conflicted and tearful, dark green eyes, Vigil realized that she needed to speak her mind. After years behind the dam she had built in her mind, all the rage and pain from her past was bursting out, needing someone to hear it. Chrysalis had never been very talkative on the matter, even with Vigil who had just imagined what Chrysalis had been through. As much as it hurt him to see his favorite protégée like this, Vigil convinced him that it was for the best to let her talk and that she would feel better afterwards. As Vigil decided to stop his interruption and to remain silent, Chrysalis started her explanation after a brief nod.

Despite having broken them with a dusty hammer from the workshop, she had experienced their roaming fingers all over again. When she started to feel their aggressive tongues travelling across her skin, Chrysalis ripped them out of their mouths. Their predatory eyes had remained on her long after she had pierced them with her fingers. Chrysalis had felt Guy and Robert’s hot and needy breaths on her neck shortly after making sure they had drawn their last thanks to her Exoskeleton’s claws. She had cut the hand which had maintained her head against the deck’s floor all those years ago, but it still weighed on the back of her skull. She had even disarmed them with her green flames, but she was the one feeling the burns of their invasive fires.

“...I kept on saying,” Chrysalis explained shakily after telling Vigil how she felt earlier. “No, yelling about how I was in my right to butcher them like pigs… That I had every rights to do what I wanted of them… Just like they did what they wanted of me all those years ago… In the end, I was much more worse than them,” Chrysalis let out softly, prompting Vigil into breathing in louder than before in disapproval. “Do you know what I did when they died?”

“... No, I don’t,” Vigil replied slowly after a brief bull-like puff. “I went out of the building to give you some space.”

“I cried,” Chrysalis said in a disgusted voice. “I cried because of two of the men who trained me for Haakim’s pleasure! I cried because of the people who raped me when I was twelve years old! I finally get my revenge on them, and I can’t stop crying like a little girl since the moment they stopped breathing!” She shouted, her voice trembling as tears rolled along her cheeks.

“With what you’ve been through, I think it’s normal to cry,” Vigil said. “You’re only one person and there’s only so much one person can take.”

“I hate feeling like this,” Chrysalis whispered sadly. “I feel like I’m twelve years old again… Filthy, helpless and like everyone has abandoned me.”

“Not everyone.” Vigil shook his head slowly as he softly passed his hand in her blood-stained green hair. “I’m here, aren’t ?” He asked while he used his nails to crack a dry crust of blood in her dark emerald locks.

“...Yeah.. You are,” Chrysalis let out in a soft-spoken tone,

“You’re also far from helpless. You wouldn’t be a Swarmlady if you were.” Vigil assured calmly as he kept on passing his fingers in her bloodied locks. “Though, I’m sorry to say it but you could really use a shower now,” he added in a joking tone.

“Jerk,” Chrysalis whispered with the ghost of a chuckle escaping her throat, her palm lazily hitting his chest as a punishment.

“Guilty as charged,” Vigil stated with a shrug while he gently rested his hand against her cheek, his thumb wiping the trail of tears away from it. “You’re going to be fine, Chrysalis. Confronting them reopened the wound, that is true, but now we can say that you properly cleaned it up. It can only go better from now on.”

“... I suppose,” Chrysalis replied with a long sniff, as Vigil’s other hand went from her hair to clear her other trail of tears. “... Vigil?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for being there for me.” Chrysalis managed a small smile before she leaned forward to hug the older Changeling.

“Anytime,” Vigil replied in a whisper, returning the hug instantly. “Get some rest now. It has been a long day,” he added when he heard her hold back a yawn.

“Can I stay like this?” she asked sheepishly as she snuggled deep into Vigil’s strong embrace.

“I don’t mind,” Vigil replied slowly as he glanced around the abandoned room they were in. I wonder why she came here of all places... he thought as Chrysalis moved so that she could effectively sleep on his lap in addition to in his arms. I’ll ask her another time I guess. He placed a small peck on her forehead. “Goodnight, Chryssie.”

“...I strongly disapprove of that name.”

That was Chrysalis’ tired retort before sleep gained on her. As Vigil rolled his eyes at it, Chrysalis felt immensely small and frail in Vigil’s embrace, but she realized that it didn’t bother her at all, despite hating feeling like that. Her mother had once told her that she would find a special place where she could feel perfectly safe no matter what. That was how her mother had explained her what a home was when she was little. That was why she had come back to this old, abandoned house: to feel like home again, to feel safe. She had now realized that she had been wrong all along. As a child, she wouldn’t have imagined to feel safe and warm in the arms of a seasoned assassin, but now, she wouldn’t change it for the world.

Author's Note

Finally an update again, (got a lot going on at the moment)

there was the next step of Chrysalis' journey, and as well as a bit of her dark past.

What did you think? Good? Bad?
Don't hesitate to comment on it.

A huge thank you to PinkieLunaShy, Royal Rainbow and Xhoral1865 for their editing and proofreading performances.

Hoping you liked it,
Mariacheat-Brony

PS: Check out my Patreon page for news about the GTVS comic (almost the one page per month milestones) and some extra content related to my stories.

The Istalloñan Issue

Ten years and a half before the Canterlot Wedding, Castle Mi Amore…

“So, dear daughter,” Cadenza’s mother, Mi Amore Cavatina, began as she took her glass of wine. “I couldn’t help but notice that this young Equestrian knight was quite friendly with you,” she said calmly, bringing her glass into the light to observe the burgundy beverage.

It had been a few hours since the escort of the Golden Sun had left Maredrid to return to Canterlot. Prince Fortissimo had offered them hospitality for a couple of days as a thank-you for bringing back his daughter safely. Despite the slight tensions between the Istalloñan ruling family and the Alicorn Princesses of Equestria, the escort’s stay happened without any sort of trouble. With their guests now gone, the Mi Amore family was gathered for an afternoon tea and biscuits, which usually involved the two rulers to taste various vintages while their children were more than content with actual tea and biscuits.

“You mean Shining Armor, mother?” Cadenza asked after politely chewing on and swallowing her almond-crusted cookie. “I’ve babysitted his younger sister quite a lot, so we got more opportunity to get to know each other. He’s a good friend.”

“Babysitted?” Cadenza’s older brother, Bolero, asked with a cocked eyebrow. “Since when do you even do babysitting?”

“Since I have way too much free time in Canterlot and that I think children are adorable,” Cadenza explained softly.

“I find that hard to believe, considering how mean you’ve always been with me,” Crescendo, Cadenza’s ten-years-old brother remarked with a frown.

“That’s because you’ve always been a little demon shaped like a child,” Cadenza retorted with a frown of her own, remembering all the dirty tricks her younger sibling had pulled on her over the years.

As his younger siblings were glaring at each other, Bolero tried to refrain his chuckles while their mother simply rolled her eyes and their father frowned in displeasure. When Prince Fortissimo cleared his throat sternly, Bolero immediately re-took his handsome poker-face and his siblings stopped what they were doing.

“I trust you did more than babysitting, Cadenza,” Fortissimo said his voice full of disdain. “I did not agree for you to study in Canterlot so that you could spend all your time playing with peasants’ children.”

“....I do study well, father,” Cadenza replied slowly. “Also, Shining and his family aren’t peasants!”

“Even so, did you get close to the Princesses?” Fortissimo asked calmly. “As I told you to?”

“...... Princess Celestia and Princess Luna accepted to let me live in their castle for my studies in Canterlot, but I’m nothing more than a guest to them,” Cadenza explained. “On the rare occasions I actually spent with them, we’ve never really discussed any matter that might be of use to you….”

“So basically, you’ve done nothing of what was expected of you there?” Fortissimo asked after letting out a long and displeased sigh.

“.....” Cadenza opened her mouth to retort, but closed it at the same time as her fists.

“Father,” Bolero cut off softly. “If I may interject, you’ve said yourself that there was only one chance over a million that Luna or Celestia would say anything of importance to Cadenza during her stay,” he reminded with calm and stoicism. “I find it unfair of you to take such a blaming tone with her.”

“.... I suppose you’re right, Son,” Fortissimo admitted with a sigh. “Forgive me, child,” he added sincerely towards Cadenza. “With all those bandits scourging the land and the railways problems with Equestria, my patience is wearing thinner every day… Much to my own displeasure.”

“I understand, Father,” Cadenza calmly replied with a nod as the door of the private salon were pushed open.

“Your Grace,” a middle-aged man called with a short bow as all of the royals were looking straight at him in surprise. “I’m sorry to bother you, but a woman at the gates claims that Princess Cadenza invited her over,” the Prince’s steward, Bastante, explained in a professional tone.

“Well, ask the guards to chase her off, like they do to all those lying attention-seekers who come at our door,” Princess Cavatina demanded calmly.

“Wait, Bastante!” Cadenza almost shouted over her mother’s voice, startling her father’s steward. “Does she have dark green hair that reaches down here?” she asked more politely, holding her hand to the level of her loins.

“Hum, Yes,” Bastante asked in confusion. “How did you know, my Lady?”

“Yes, Cadenza, how did you know that?” Cavatina, Fortissimo and Bolero asked simultaneously.

“I told you about her already!” Cadenza reminded impatiently. “It’s the woman who saved me on the road! Just let her in, please!”

“Well...,” Bastante let out uneasily, looking at the ruling Princess to know what to do, only to have her looking at her husband with the same expression as his.

“...I think we owe to see her to thank her for saving our daughter,” Fortissimo replied, earning his wife’s dubious expression in return. “If anything, I’m more than curious about this woman, to be honest,” he added matter-of-factly.

“I’m going to go and welcome her!” Cadenza excitedly stated before she rushed to the door as quickly as possible.

“Cadenza, it’s not prop… and now she’s gone!” Cavatina said with a sigh as her daughter had bolted out of the room in a pinkish blur. “Bastante, please make sure that she doesn’t go overboard with this guest of hers!” Cavatina demanded firmly. “We’ve already put up with those armored peasants from Equestria for the last three days because of her.”

“I’ll do my best, your Grace,” Bastante quietly replied with a bow before leaving the room, hoping to catch up the younger Princess.

“Mother, If I may…”

“Yes, Bolero, I know that the Golden Shield isn’t a riff-raff of peasants in armor but a powerful and noble order of Chivalry, thank you!” Cavatina interrupted the oldest of her children sharply. “Cadenza just had way too many liberties in Canterlot and needs to re-learn the limits imposed by her status!” She turned towards her husband. “Did you see how flirty she was with that young Armor-whatever Knight?” she asked with worry.

“Well, who do you think she’s taking that from, dear?” Fortissimo asked back with a cocked eyebrow.

“I beg you pardon?” Cavatina blinked in stupor before her eyebrow was raised higher than her husband’s.

“Why don’t we go welcome our sister’ savior, Brother?” Crescendo asked slowly as he discreetly stood up.

“What an excellent idea! Let’s go greet her along with Cadenza,” Bolero suggested awkwardly as he pushed his brother out of the room while their parents started to bicker.

“Well, I wasn’t the one visiting the barracks at night to turn a young recruit away from the righteous and virtuous path!” Prince Fortissimo stated high and mighty.

“It’s not like said young recruit put out much of resistance!” Cavatina reminded with a frown. “Besides, If I remember correctly, YOU were the one who asked me to come see you at night…”

In the meantime, Cadenza made her way to the Castle Grounds’ main court, where all the visitors had to pass to in order to enter, as quickly as possible and ignoring the calls from her father’s steward for her to slow down. As she reached the court, Cadenza immediately spotted the green-haired woman examining her nails in front of five guards who blocked her the gateway. Raising her dress a bit so she could run, Cadenza sprinted to the gateway, only to be noticed by Chrysalis. The greenette smiled softly and bowed at her, prompting the guards into looking behind themselves in confusion.

“Princess Cadenza?” one of them let out softly after the teenaged princess stopped her sprint in front of them.

“Hello, sirs,” Cadenza replied calmly. “Could you let my guest in, please?”

“She’s really your guest?” another guard asked in surprise, only to have the oldest of the groupe whacking the back of his head.

“What kind of an idiotic question is that? If Princess Cadenza says that she’s her guest, than she is the princess’ guest.” the older guard stated rolling his eyes as the group broke formation to let Chrysalis in. “Sorry for the inconvenience, Highness, my Lady,” he said to both women.

“No harm done, Sir,” Cadenza assured with a warm smile as Chrysalis walked past the line of guards. “I’m glad you found the time for a visit.”

“I did say that I would try, didn’t I, Princess Cadenza?” Chrysalis asked playfully with a brief curtsey, before being pulled in a hug by the teenager. “......Well, I guess that works too as a hello,” Chrysalis chuckled, returning the hug with a warm smile on her lips.

“Friends don’t curtsey to one another, nor do they call each other Princess or Miss,” Cadenza reminded with a sly grin as they broke their embrace.

“Still not that crazy about protocol and royal decency, huh?” Chrysalis asked, her smile wider and warmer than before.

“I’ll probably never be crazy about those to be honest,” Cadenza replied with a shrug before taking Chrysalis’ hand. “Now, come! I’ll introduce you to my family!” she excitedly shouted as she pulled the older woman towards the other side of the court.

While Chrysalis felt her shoulder getting a bit sore after the rough pull from the pink-dressed princess, the pair entered inside the castle just as an exhausted old man held himself up against a wall and called for Cadenza. Before he could say anything, Cadenza asked him to warn the kitchens for they would have a guest at dinner. He tried to argue with her, but Cadenza didn’t let him finish a single sentence as she kept giving further instructions after asking Chrysalis a few questions : What she was allergic to? What was her favorite meal? Vintage? Did she enjoy stronger alcoholic beverages?...

Chrysalis hadn’t planned on staying in the castle more than a hour, but after seeing Cadenza as excited and cute as a hyperactive puppy, she didn’t have it in her to cut her stay short. The expression of sighing fatality on Cadenza’s father’s steward as the Princess kept on and on was also too funny to pass.

**********************************************************************************************************

A few hours and a copious dinner later, Chrysalis was about to leave the Castle. Unlike what she had initially thought, it did go pretty well. Cadenza’s brothers and Father had been more than interested into learning about her job as a mercenary, much like Cadenza had been a couple of days ago. She had fancified the deal a lot of course, but that kept their attention glued onto her for the whole evening.

The only one who didn’t seem pleased by this was, quite expectedly, Cadenza’s mother. Seeing her husband and children fawning over another woman’s tale, a woman whose background she clearly didn’t approve of to make it better, could be perceived as a low blow to her pride. Chrysalis didn’t let it get to her though. The ruling princess didn’t approve of her, so be it. It wasn’t like Chrysalis would care, unless if it would somehow undermine her goals, something she doubted a lot.

When the children, namely Cadenza and Crescendo, had been sent to bed by their mother, Chrysalis turned the conversation back to the attack on Cadenza’s carriage, wanting to know why someone would want to target such a nice young lady. Bolero, who happened to be in charge of supervising his father’s Guard, and Fortissimo explained her that cries of revolt against the Mi Amores’ rule had been claimed since the railways problem with Equestria.

Many farmers, merchants, builders and many others had made a lot of investments in prevision to the new, faster and surer trade route. Investments that wouldn’t be compensated as the construction of the rails had been delayed and then cancelled thanks to a huge mistake on the Istalloñan’s delegation’s behalf : Upon arriving to Canterlot, many of its members had boasted that Princess Celestia was getting too old to understand the importance and the economics around something as modern as a network of railways, which would result in a very good deal for them.

It was safe to assume that the princess in question had somehow heard about the delegates’ condescending comments on her person when she announced that her sister would be in charges of the negotiations. True to the rumors about her, Princess Luna was far less gentle than her sister on the negotiation table. What was supposed to be a good deal on the construction of the railways turned out to be a total disaster when the Istalloñan nobility couldn’t afford the costs of such enterprise. With the nobility not able to back up the project, it was cancelled, which lead to the events like the attack on Cadenza’s carriage.

“You say not able, yet I’m getting a feeling that the rest of the nobility is more “not willing” to back up the project, your Grace,” Chrysalis commented casually over her glass of wine, her strong green eyes boring into the Prince’s tired, blue eyes.

“...How did you...” Cavatina began in confusion.

“It wouldn’t be the first time the riches wouldn’t empty their wallets for the greater good,” Chrysalis retorted calmly. “Though, I must confess that I’m shocked that you didn’t force the others to simply comply,”

“You say it like it’s just so easy to do,” Bolero remarked with a sigh. “The others great families are as influential as ours here.”

“You have much more chances with them than with that ridiculous idea of yours. Having your precious Cadenza study in Canterlot while trying to put you and Istalloña back in the Alicorn Princesses’ good graces,” Chrysalis explained calmly as she aimed a condescending glance at Fortissimo and Cavatina.

“What did you just say?!” Cavatina asked angrily while Fortissimo glared at their guest.

“Now, I admit that Cadenza is a really nice girl who can probably turn a few heads around,” Chrysalis stated with a shrug and small smile. “Still you really thought that the two most powerful beings of the last four thousand years would be swayed by a fifteen-year-old princess who’s a bit too trusty for her own sake.”

“How dare you come here and insult us and our daughter like that, you…” Cavatina growled furiously.

“I’m not insulting your daughter, Princess,” Chrysalis countered slowly. “If anything, I’m a bit worried about her… Someone would have it easy to abuse of her trust,” she added sincerely.

“Someone like you, her supposed rescuer?” Cavatina snarled as she slammed her hands on the table to stand up.

“Hmmm, I was thinking of two immortal women in Canterlot, but I suppose that someone like me could fit the bill as well,” Chrysalis commented in admittance, prompting shocked gasps from the three Mi Amores. “I happened to rescue her and she immediately invited me to spend the rest of trip in her carriage, as well as to spend an evening in your castle…. And now, here I stand, just me and you three… No guards to watch over you, no servants to call for help if anything were to happen... “ She let the three royals sink all what she had said in a heavy silence as she levitated a pitch of wine to refill her glass. “Too much trust seems to be a family tradition I guess.”

“....So, you’re here to kill us. Is that what you’re implying?” Fortissimo spoke softly for the first time since Chrysalis interrupted his explanation.

“No, I’m merely implying that you should be more careful,” Chrysalis assured slowly. “Even more so after the attack on your daughter… From what I gathered since my arrival here, the most violent attack on the Sun’s Road had barely involved three thugs who knocked an old merchant unconscious before stealing his wagon and horse… Kinda lucky for a group of thirty rebels to be there right on the day Cadenza was travelling back to Maredrid.”

“...What?” Bolero and Cavatina let out in shock while Fortissimo silently kept his eyes on the green-haired lady.

“Someone might have set all up,” Chrysalis stated calmly.

“Someone “might”?” Fortissimo asked firmly. “So, you’re not sure.”

“Indeed, I’m not,” Chrysalis admitted with a shake of her head. “It could be just coincidence for all I know.”

“And if it isn’t a coincidence?” Fortissimo asked in a slightly shaken tone. “What if it was a set up?”

“Then, I suggest you to stop trusting everyone that smiles at you and to reinforce the security around here,” Chrysalis said with vigor. “Maybe even finally show your strength as the ruling family of this decaying country.”

“And, you’ve got a plan for that too, I suppose?” Cavatina doubtfully asked.

“More of a vague concept than a plan to be honest,” Chrysalis admitted with a shrug.

“And what is that vague concept, if I may ask?” Fortissimo asked with narrowed eyes.

“You will but first, we need to check if the attack on Cadenza’s carriage was a set-up or a coincidence,” Chrysalis stated calmly. “I suppose you’ve kept the few prisoners the Golden Shield knights made.”

“Our Guard-Captain questioned them already,” Bolero remarked after his father had nodded to the green-haired guest. “According to him, they know nothing of real importance.”

“If he says so, then I suppose we’ll have to assume it was just a coincidence, and work on what really matters for this country,” Chrysalis said as she stood up from the table. “Tomorrow, though. It’s quite late already. My partners might start to worry if I don’t come back soon,” she added casually as she noticed how dark it was outside. “It has been a pleasure, your Highnesses.”

“Wait a second!” Cavatina called after Chrysalis bowed to them and walked to the door. “Why are you doing this? What’s in it for you?” she asked in suspicious confusion.

“Remember, Princess Cavatina, curiosity killed the cat,” Chrysalis let out with a dismissive wave, barely stopping her walk to the door. “Just pretend that your original plan of sending Cadenza to Canterlot worked….. Though, I guess we could say it sort of worked.”

“How so?”

“You sent Cadenza to get the support of powerful, influential and immortal women,” Chrysalis explained with a prideful chuckle as she pulled the dining room’s door open. “... Two out of three is still better than nothing, right?” she asked as she left the room, her chuckles resonating through the halls of Castle Mi Amore.

**********************************************************************************************************

The next day, elsewhere…

“I think you should stop pulling, Zero,” Clarion advised matter-of-factly to the frost-blue-haired man before him.

“How do you want them to talk if I stop pulling?” Zero asked in an even tone as tendrils of blue magic connected his fist to the screaming man’s fingernails. “Besides, what I’m doing is not lethal.”

“I’m not saying it is, but it might be a bit too painful for him to handle,” Clarion commented casually. “Also, the Swarmlady wanted you to make him talk, not holler,” he added, slightly wincing in discomfort at the sight of the prisoner’s nails being pulled further off his digits.

“I didn’t think he’d scream so loudly. I sure didn’t when it was done to me,” Zero reminded casually, showing off the nailless fingers of his left hand while keeping his attention on his victim.

“That is very true but you are a very special man,” Clarion stated before pointing at the screaming Istalloñan rebel. “He definitely isn’t. Thus, I think you should stop pulling so that he doesn’t pass out from the pain. Because if he does, we won’t get the answers to our Lady’s questions.”

“Hmm, I suppose you’re right,” Zero admitted as he dispelled his magical tendrils, causing the tortured man’s screams to reduce to mere whimpers and supplications. “So, would you consider telling us who told you and your bunch of peasants that Princess Cadenza was going to be on that road?”

“...... I told you already, no one did we just …”

“Camped out near the Sun road waiting for the princess’ carriage to pass,” Zero finished his sentence abruptly. “You’ve indeed told us that but we obviously aren’t buying it. So how about you tell the truth for a change?”

“...I swear it is the truth! Please! I swear it on my life!” the rebel pleaded softly while Zero sighed apathetically before re-conjuring his magical tendrils. “N-no! Please! I beg you! NO! NO!”

The screams resonated through the dark chamber as soon as the pulling started again. Clarion shook his head before stepping away from Zero, not without reminding once again to his comrade that their prisoner’s limit isn’t quite the same as his. Clarion glanced at the north wall of the room, waiting for a sign to come from it. When it didn’t show any, Clarion leaned against the south wall and watched Zero, one of Chrysalis’ Executioners and probably the best interrogator of the Changeling Hive, work his magic on the ill-fated rebel. On the other side of the illusionary wall that separated them from Zero’s questioning, Chrysalis observed her subordinate in silence as Vigil sighed in defeat.

“That’s the last of the prisoners from the attack, Chrysalis,” Vigil stated slowly. “I’m afraid those rebels really did act without the support of the other noble families.”

“Of course, they acted without support of the nobles, Vigil,” Chrysalis let out calmly. “If the nobles would have been behind this, the Hive would have been contacted about this months ago.”

“So why did you send a message for Zero to come?” Vigil asked curiously.

“Well, it was to be sure,” Chrysalis replied matter-of-factly. “I didn’t believe that the nobles would be involved, but if they were that would have been a nice opportunity.”

“How so?”

“Only the heads and heir of the noble houses of Istalloña sport golden signet rings on their hands,” Chrysalis explained. “Which means more than two-hundred of the wealthiest persons spread throughout the whole Principality. Investigating on them should be simpler if the Mi Amores start doubting their loyalty.”

“So what are you going to do now?” Vigil asked slowly.

“The only thing left to do, Vigil,” Chrysalis stated calmly as she walked through the wall separating them from the questioning.

As she stepped out of the wall, Zero and Clarion immediately looked at the Swarmlady, only to see a claw pop out of her wrist-band and pierce the poor man’s chest with it. As his breathing became more ragged and slowly came to a stop, Chrysalis retracted her claw back to its inoffensive shape of a wrist-band. Zero merely cocked an eyebrow at his dying target before shrugging non-committedly and bowing to his superior.

“I thank you for your efforts, Zero,” Chrysalis said sincerely.

“I’m sorry they didn’t result in the answers you were looking for, My Lady,” Zero replied evenly as he took a deeper and more apologetic bow.

“It’s okay. I have another assignment for you, and maybe it could bring such answers to me,” Chrysalis declared slowly.

“Your wishes are my commands,” Zero assured in his quiet, inexpressive voice.

“I need you to go back to the Hive, take as much supplies as you can for I have a possibly very long mission for you,” Chrysalis explained in a calm tone.

“Very well, I’ll be back as soon as possible,” Zero stated with a nod.

“And bring the others with you,” Chrysalis ordered calmly.

As soon as those words passed her lips, the two Executioners snapped their heads at her in shock, an expression of complete bewilderment on their faces, even on Zero’s usually cold and blank one. Chrysalis simply crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow at the pair, as if daring them to argue with her.

“.....The others, my Lady?” Zero asked in a confused whisper.

"You're not the only Changeling under my command, Zero," Chrysalis reminded with a small smirk.

"...And by that, you mean..." Zero began softly.

“All of my Executioners, Soldiers and Drones,” Chrysalis finished for her blue-haired Executioner. “I want every single one of my three-hundreds-sixty-eight changelings to come to Maredrid.”

“......It shall be done, Swarmlady,” Zero replied with a low bow and promptly stood up to leave.

“....Lady Chrysalis, If I may interject,” Clarion called while softly raising his hand just as Zero left the room in hurry. “The other Swarmlords will never approve of a gathering this size outside of the Hive.”

“You think Vigil's going to oppose my decision?” Chrysalis asked with a cocked eyebrow, knowing that Clarion had no idea Vigil just stood behind the illusionary wall.

“Vigil Locust is my master, I will not pretend to voice his opinion on the matter,” Clarion declared solemnly. “But, I would advise you to think more on what you just ordered Zero to do… Too many wasps in a garden will make the gardener weary of the existence of a nest.”

“Your advice is legit and I appreciate you voicing it,” Chrysalis admitted with a nod. “I have thought this through for the last three days and I’m willing to risk the wrath of the other Swarmlords in order to reach for my goal,” Chrysalis explained slowly. “Does it quiet your concerns, Clarion?”

“Not really, my Lady,” Clarion admitted with a shake of his head. “But I’ll trust your judgement and do as I’m ordered.”

“Good! Now, I borrowed seven prisoners from Prince Fortissimo, it would be unprofessional to bring him back only six of them, would it not?” Chrysalis asked, nodding at the cadaver of the Istalloñan rebel.

“That it would,” Clarion replied with a nod before taking the rebel’s appearance in a flash of green light. “Luckily, we can provide for a spare.”

“.... It might also be useful to have an eye and an ear in the rebellion,” Chrysalis commented calmly. “Do you think it’s possible?”

“Considering how easy it was for us to borrow prisoners from the prince without his formal authorization, several times I might add, I think it’s more than feasible,” Clarion stated with a smirk.

“Good, now go,” Chrysalis ordered with a smile.

With a last bow to her, Clarion walked out of the interrogation room to gather all the other prisoners and bring them back to the Prince’s dungeons. As soon as he was out, Vigil stepped into the room, frowning a bit at Chrysalis.

“Clarion is really a good man,” Chrysalis said calmly. “No wonders you’ve picked him as your second.”

“One of the best,” Vigil commented slowly. “So that’s your plan? Infiltrate the whole nobility of an entire country in the hope of finding the Masked Man?”

“Do I really have an other option?” Chrysalis asked back with a sigh.

“....Other than forgetting about him? Not really,” Vigil admitted slowly. “Why infiltrate the rebellion though?”

“You really think I’d let those wannabe-child-kidnappers go without a hitch?” Chrysalis growled furiously. “After their attack on Cadenza?”

“Cadenza’s just a girl, Chrysal....”

“A girl I saved, Vigil!” Chrysalis snapped loudly. “It’s my responsibility to look out for her now!”

“No, it isn’t, Chrysalis,” Vigil replied slowly. “She’s with her family, surrounded by guards…”

“Her family of morons who shipped her off at the other side of the continent for nothing! Guards so incompetent that Clarion and Mendax barely had to change to get in and out with prisoners!” Chrysalis growled as dark green flames gathered around her fists.

“You’ve known her for what, four days, Chrysalis!” Vigil stated slowly. “You don’t have to care for her.”

“....Then, you didn’t have to care for me in Nadira,” Chrysalis retorted slowly, instantly silencing her former mentor. “You saw me during five, maybe ten minutes in Haakim’s chambers… And you still saved me from Farah and the other women of the Harem who wanted nothing but my death! You could have abandoned me right after we left Camelu, but you brought me to the Hive instead… You could have let me fail the Drone-test, but you brought me Vespid’s elixir…. You could have left me to my own plans for the Masked man, but you found Guy and Robert for me…. You didn’t have to care for me during all those years, but you still did.” Chrysalis spun around, facing Vigil with angry but teary eyes. “So don’t you DARE tell me that I don’t have to care for Cadenza.”

“Chrysalis…”

“When she’s with me, Cadenza’s a lot like how I was with you… Hung-up to every word I say, looking at me as if I could do anything, being awed at whatever I say,” Chrysalis whispered shakily. “It feels like … like I’m her older sister or cousin, I don’t know…It..It’s feels really nice and, I just want keep her and that feeling safe....I think.”

“I guess you do,” Vigil admitted with a sigh before resting his hand on Chrysalis’ shoulder. “But how far are you willing to go to keep that little princess safe?”

“As far as I need to go, I guess,” Chrysalis let out in response.

“Would you go as far as forgetting the Masked Man for her sake?” Vigil asked coldly with narrowed eyes.

“....” Chrysalis opened her mouth a couple of times to assure that she would, but each time her throat wouldn’t make a sound.

“I know that look,” Vigil stated slowly, pointing at her conflicting face. “You need some time to think about this.” He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “I’ll head to the Hive as well, making sure the other Swarmlords are off your back. Should you need me, you know where to find me,” he added sincerely before turning around to face the door of the room they were in.

“Thank you, I’ll make it up to you,” Chrysalis whispered quietly.

“You’ll never have to,” Vigil assured before planting a light kiss on her forehead and leaving the room and Chrysalis alone with brightly red cheeks.

Author's Note

There you go, Chrysalis' gathering her forces in Maredrid to aid the Mi Amores and in her search for the Masked Man.

I hope you liked it.

Thanks to Royal Rainbow for proof-reading this chapter for me.

Also a huge thank you to all my patrons :
Adam Tomkinson, Brad Snow, Scaredtuna, DerRotSpassvogel, Robert Redd, Michael Abell, James Zhang, Anthurak, Paul-Kelly Blazquez, and Superluminous.

Thanks to whom I already reached my first milestone goal , thus permanently making the GTVS comic a monthly-updated comic. Don't hesitate to give it a look and/or support my writings and the comic.

Don't forget to leave a comment; feedback is always appreciated.

Ps: if you're wondering why I haven't updated earlier, it's because I've had quite a few job interviews lately, so I focused a greater part of my attention on those rather than writing.

Mariacheat-Brony

The Girl's search comes to an end...

Seven years and a half before the Canterlot Wedding, Castle Mi-Amore, ...

Crystal glasses clinked together along with the many cheers of the guests of Prince Fortissimo. Like his wife, he had been first skeptical about what Chrysalis could accomplish to save the economy of Istalloña and its nobility, but now he could only say that she was a blessing sent by the Horse Gods. Even Princess Cavatina now had to admit that Chrysalis wasn’t just all-talk.

It had taken her a bit more than two years, but Chrysalis had managed to rally all the great houses to the Mi-Amore’s. One by one, the heads of the Great Families were convinced to accept the Equestria-Istalloña railway project, whose’ signing they were celebrating today. The rebellious actions against the crown of the Mi-Amore had been also drastically reduced during the last two years. It seemed that wherever the green-haired lady would go, success would follow her. Though, at this very moment, she was a bit regretful of that.

If you’d ask her, Chrysalis would say that those fancy gala-parties were boring: only standing there, looking pretty and feigning interest to whoever came to speak to her. The later proved to be even more difficult and annoying as she had seen other side of many of all those high and mighty nobles over the last two years.

She had felt a cold chill running up her spine when the young Duke of Marecelona had kissed Princess Cadenza’s hand when he saw her. Forcing him and by extension his family back in line had been extremely unpleasant for Chrysalis. Duke Di-Corazon’s weird “appetites”, which she had discovered thanks to one of her faithful drones, had profoundly disgusted the green-haired woman and it took all her self-control from not blasting him into oblivion for merely approaching Cadenza. The memory of the state in which her female drone had returned from her mission was still fresh in her mind, even if it dated from a year now.

After the disgusting Duke went back to chat the other guests, other members of the hundred families composing the Istalloñan nobility went to greet the Princess and her father’s newest right hand. A baron her changelings had found having an affair with his son’s wife, an old knight who had been indebted to a shady organisation prior to Chrysalis’s coming into Istalloña’s political scene, another Duke whose father had suddenly disappeared after Chrysalis found out he had in mind to make his house the ruling family of Istalloña -his son was much more accommodating-, and many more whose dirty secrets she knew off. There were also those whom her changelings hadn’t found anything to put pressure on them, but sadly they were the exceptions, not the majority.

“I’m never going to get used to that,” Chrysalis whispered to Cadenza after an overly-enthusiastic businessman had thanked her again and again for putting the railways project back on track. “And why do the most excited ones are always the ones with the greasiest hands and the bad puns?” she asked in disgust as she vaporized the human grease of her evening glove with a flick of magic, prompting a badly held-back snort of laughter from the almost-eighteen-year-old Princess. “A princess does not snort, Cadenza,” she reminded with a good-natured smile.

“Yes and she also farts butterflies which smell like roses,” Cadenza retorted playfully with a fancy flourish of her hand. “OUCH!” she let out after Chrysalis flicked her ear in response. “You know, sometimes you’re worse than my mother,” she retorted with narrowed eyes, even though the effect was lost due to her playful smile.

“Because I remind you to not speak of your fantasist body-gas jokes?” Chrysalis asked with a cocked eyebrow. “It’s a rather crass topic of conversation.” Cadenza opened her mouth to reply. “And don’t try to counter me by saying that boys do it all the time. It’s still a crass topic even when it’s a conversation between boys.”

“You were more fun before,” Cadenza commented with a pout.

“I hadn’t saved a country from itself before,” Chrysalis remarked casually, earning a roll of eyes from the young Princess.

“It wasn’t all about what you’ve accomplished too,” Cadenza retorted playfully.

“If you want we could discuss about what you’ve accomplished recently,” Chrysalis slyly grinned at the pink-clad royal. “So, how much of a stud is that brave Equestrian Knight named Shining Armor?” she asked with a low purr, whispering in Cadenza’s ear.

“H-How...What are you... How do you even know?” Cadenza stuttered with flaming red cheeks.

“You had that glow around you when he said goodbye to you,” Chrysalis reminded the events of a few days ago when she had travelled to Canterlot to pick up Cadenza. “I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t share any of it with me on the way back though.”

“I just didn’t want Mother or Bolero to find out,” Cadenza explained in ushered whispers, her eyes scaredly looking everywhere for her mother and older sibling. “They would make a big deal out of it.”

“Well, it is a big deal, Cadenza,” Chrysalis let out softly. “Though, you didn’t have to worry about me spilling the beans. Your mother would say that is somehow my fault if you tainted yourself out of wedlock.”

“It kinda is, Chryssie,” Cadenza reminded with discreet chuckle.

“You asked me questions, I just answered them,” Chrysalis defended herself with vigor. “I didn’t tell you to jump the gun!”

“What about that special box you slid in my luggage with the little note: “In case of!” with a little winking drawing on the side?” Cadenza retorted with a cocked eyebrow.

“Why do you assume it was from me?”

“The dagger taped to the box with the note : “it’s an even better protection!” was a bit of a give-away,” Cadenza let out with a smug grin.

The pair kept staring at each other for a few seconds before Chrysalis raised her hand in front of Cadenza’s face. The princess blinked in puzzlement at her friend who cocked an eyebrow at her. She was about to ask what Chrysalis was doing when the green-haired flicked the tip of her nose. Cadenza’s surprised yelp caused a few heads to turn their way. Among those, Cadenza and Chrysalis noticed the former’s mother glaring at the latter.

“Your mother really doesn’t like me, Cadenza,” Chrysalis whispered as all gazes returned to their previous occupations.

“No wonders! You’re everything she never was,” Cadenza coldly replied. “Independant, strong, beautiful, a good company, and actually liked by her children.”

“..... A bit harsh, don’t you think?” Chrysalis asked in reproaching tone.

“Maybe but it’s still true,” Cadenza whispered with a frown as she pulled Chrysalis away from the crowd. “I mean, Crescendo really likes you since you gave him Horatio last year.”

“So, you give a boy a falcon and now he forsakes his own mother?” Chrysalis asked back with a frown at the sight of the younger prince showing off his falconeer skills to the many young ladies who hung around the balcony.

“....Okay, bad example with Crescendo but Bolero has a huge crush on you, …”

“As flattering as your brother’s crush is, I really hope it hasn’t replaced the affection he has for your mother,” Chrysalis countered with a wince. “The implications would be really creepy.”

“Aaaaand now I have the image of Bolero trying to win over Mother in my head,” Cadenza stated with a horrified shuddering as the pair left the reception hall. “Anyway, I still prefer hanging with you than with Mother. At least, YOU listen to me before telling me if I’m wrong or right...”

“Surely, she’s trying to look out for you,” Chrysalis suggested casually. “She probably still sees you as her little baby princess,”

“Well, I’m a grown-up now! I know what’s best for me!” Cadenza retorted slowly.

“In the eyes of a mother, one never truly becomes a grown-up,” Chrysalis let out with a warm chuckle. “Where are you taking me?” she asked as they kept walking along the classy corridors of Castle Mi-Amore.

“Somewhere far from the crowd you seem so uncomfortable with,” Cadenza replied with a playful wink.

If only it was just uncomfortable. Chrysalis thought with a roll of her eyes.

“Mother can be so demanding with me. Even more demanding than with Bolero who’s the crown-prince.” Cadenza went back to their earlier topic of conversation. “Sometimes I just wish she wasn’t there to order me aroun…”

“No, you don’t!” Chrysalis firmly stated before Cadenza could even finish voicing her thoughts. “Never say or even think that, Cadenza!”

“W-what?” the young princess replied in confusion.

“Never wish for your mother to not be there, Cadenza,” Chrysalis strongly explained.

“....I’m sorry,” Cadenza let out after evading her eyes from Chrysalis’s strong but hurt irises. “I didn’t think it would upset you all that much…” she added in a sincere apologetic tone as she lead them through a golden and mahogany-colored double-door.

“Then, start thinking before speaking!” Chrysalis chastised sternly, almost yelling. “And know that not everyone has your luck of still having a mother to complain about, Princess Cadenza!”

Chrysalis simply humphed when the pink-clad damsel didn’t reply before she let Cadenza lead her to the stairs in silence. The atmosphere between the two women had reached a thickness in par with the one of the castle’s walls as they arrived in Cadenza’s quarters. The young princess’ fingers drummed nervously against her palms, as she cast worried glances at her friend who let out a brief sigh.

“Look, Cadence,” Chrysalis whispered gently, using the name the princess much preferred to be called by. “I shouldn’t have snapped like that,” she said in apologetic tone.

“No, you were right,” Cadenza admitted with teary eyes as Chrysalis laid a warm hand on her cheek. “It was an awful thing to say,” she added before she felt Chrysalis’s thumb brushing the tears out of her left eye.

“A little bit,” Chrysalis let out softly. “I’ll let you blame it on your adolescent rebellious phase this one time but it better not come up again,” she added with a brief chuckle.

“I promise,” Cadenza assured with a smile.

“Now, why did you bring me all the way your quarters?” Chrysalis asked in a lighter tone.

“It seemed like you didn’t enjoy it downstairs so I thought you could use some time away from the political party,” Cadenza explained as she took a seat close to her small desk. “Also, we didn’t get the time to ‘freely’ chat on our way back from Canterlot, with the other members of the escort and all that,” she added with rosy cheeks.

Chrysalis blinked a couple of times as she leaned against the desk. “You want to talk about you and Shining Armor, don’t you?”

“......yes,”

Chyrsalis couldn’t held back her laughter before staring at the young princess with a gaze full of curiosity while Cadenza’s cheeks took the color of her dress. It was only when Chrysalis signalled her to go on with a wave of her hand that Cadenza began to speak of her passionate experience with her knight in shining armor. She turned mute for a few seconds when Chrysalis playfully reminded her that her knight had been mostly out of it.

The Swarmlady knew that the topic in question was nothing new to her, but she listened attentively to the young woman rambling about her first time, occasionally commenting on some of the dirtier details to annoy the concerned party. Chrysalis couldn’t help to feel a pinch of envy towards Cadenza. Her own virtue had been taken from her before she even understood what it really was whereas Cadenza’s had been freely given to someone she trusted and loved. Though she was more happy for Cadenza than she was envious of her. Ever since they met on the road to Maredrid, Chrysalis always wanted the best for the young princess who looked up to her somehow, and that was even true for her love life.

“Wait! Wait!” Chrysalis interrupted the young princess, her voice breathless from the chuckles she tried to hold back. “Y-You mean that you were the reason Shining Armor looked so tense and uncomfortable when I came to take you home?” she asked, her voice full mockery. “Oh Gods, that’s so funny!”

Though, Chrysalis wasn’t above teasing the young princess whenever she felt like it.

“Stop laughing, Chryssie!” Cadenza demanded in an embarrassed shout as the green-haired woman’s laugh filled the room. “He was really hurting back then!”

“Come on, Cadence!” Chrysalis called after taking back her breath. “You and him fell off the bed, right on one of his pointy shoulder pads! How do you want me to not laugh!?”

“Chrysalis!” Cadenza called sternly.

“O-okay,” the mirthful woman said, wiping her laughter tears away with one of her fingers. “So, did he get back up and went on like a true stallion of a man?” she asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

“Hu… not really,” Cadenza confessed in embarrassment. “He badly hurt himself during the fall.” When she spotted the extremely curious expression on the dark skinned woman, she sighed softly. “Officially, he fell in the stairs because of one of his adoptive brother’s toys...Stop it!” she demanded when she noticed Chrysalis biting her lower lip to hold back her re-emerging bout of laughter.

Chrysalis held one hand up as a calming gesture to silence the young princess while a few snorts escaped past her pinched lips. She held her other hand on her chest and took a deep breath before exhaling slowly as she waved her hand away from her chest. Her mirth drastically calmed down, Chrysalis wiped the starting tears away from her eyes before waving the pink off her cheeks.

“Are you done?” Cadenza asked with a blushing frown.

“I think I’m all out of, thanks,” Chrysalis replied softly. “Just don’t mention it again… To be safe.”

Now that the embarrassing part of her trip had been told, Cadenza began to explain what else had happened to her during her three months in Canterlot. Soon enough, the conversation went on about the Grand Gala in Canterlot Castle. According to Cadenza, it was nothing like the big receptions done in Istalloña, much like the one happening a few floors down.

Everything in Canterlot was more sumptuous, more refined, more elegant. In short, it was much better there than here, though Chrysalis suspected that the fact that Cadenza could actually simply enjoy the Canterlot Gala how it pleased her, whereas she had to go through the Istalloñan receptions according to the rules of protocol and her mother’s. Chrysalis, for her part, thought that every nobility’s reception or gala was mostly the same everywhere -and she had been to plenty of those during her time as a slave-.

“Oh, you should have seen the decorations for the Crystal Heart Fair!” Cadenza stated, her eyes filled with stars and other shining wonders. “Deep red velvet-made curtains, red roses actually made of rubies, the fountains of chocolate!” Cadenza explained. “Hearts wherever you laid your eyes on, the fountains of chocolate!” the excited princess sighed blissfully. “The music, the dances…. and those fountains of chocolate!”

“The Crystal Heart Fair?,” Chrysalis asked with a cocked eyebrow, almost spotting a bead of drool on her friend’s lips. “What is it about?”

“It’s a special celebration they have in Equestria,” Cadenza explained, though her eyes showed clearly that her mind was slowly drifting back to the amazing fountains of Equestrian chocolate. “It’s like a holiday for every couple in love!” she added with another deep sigh. “It’s Gleaming Topaz who brought this celebration into Equestria’s main culture, centuries ago, and....”

“Hang on!” Chrysalis interrupted in confusion. “Gleaming Topaz?! As in, Queen of Love, Gleaming Topaz?!” she asked with wide, surprised eyes. “Isn’t she just a fairy tale character?”

“Not really,” Cadenza replied with a raised eyebrow. “Well, she’s a fairy tale character now, but she actually existed. She was the last Queen of the Crystal Empire,” the young princess explained softly.

“It existed too?!!!” Chrysalis asked loudly, her eyes wide as saucers. “Did it also have a giant palace made of the most shining gemstones?” she asked enthusiastically, not unlike a very young child meeting his/her hero for the first time.

“According to our History books, yes,” Cadenza replied, holding back a laugh at how childish the usually very-adult Chrysalis was acting.

“...What about the Sculptor King? He was real as well, right?” Chrysalis demanded to know, her fists shaking in excitement.

“Yes,” Cadenza replied as Chrysalis’ jaw dropped wide open in response. “I take it you liked that story when you were young,”

“It was the first book my mother read to me,” Chrysalis replied with a sad smile. “She was really good at that… Reading stories,” she added softly. “She always managed to bring out all the wonders of a tale, even when I woke her up in the middle of the night for another one…”

“How often did that happen?” Cadenza asked with a delicate smile, prompting a rather long silence from the greenette, who seemed happily lost in her thoughts.

“Very often,” Chrysalis confessed after the memories of her late mother had assaulted her mind. “Too often, now that I think about it,” she commented in a playful, yet sad chuckle. “It’s nothing short of amazing that our copy of “the Sculptor-King and the Flower-maid” managed to remain intact for so long.”

“Do you still have it?” Cadenza asked curiously, instantly regretting her question when it made her friend’s smile vanish into a pained wince.

Cadenza remained silent when Chrysalis’ hand reached for her eyes, rubbing them roughly with a deep sigh, her face showing nothing other than an even deeper disappointment. It was all Cadenza needed for an answer and it left her uneasily confused on what to do to cheer her older friend out of her funk. Usually, she was the one in need of a good cheer from the greenette.

“I know!” Cadenza whispered after a few seconds, before abruptly standing up.

The sight of the pink-clad princess rushing for her bookshelves at the other side of her yard of a room brought Chrysalis’ attention. The green-haired lady was more than puzzled to see Cadenza grazing the covers of nearly all of her books, uttering an increasingly frustrated no whenever her finger past from one book to another.

“What are you lo…”

“HAHA! Found it!” Cadenza nearly yelled in triumph, startling Chrysalis a little bit.

She pulled a small book from the tight space between two bigger and heavier tomes, and walked back to Chrysalis with a soft smile on her face. She extended the volume to Chrysalis who cocked an eyebrow at Cadenza before glancing at the cover.

“It’s the one I got for my sixth birthday,” Cadenza explained as Chrysalis read the old writing of “The Sculptor-King and the Flower-maid” title with wide eyes. “I want you to have it!”

“Why?” Chrysalis asked in confusion after staring blankly at the young princess.

“I...I thought it would be nice for you to have it,” Cadenza explained uneasily. “I know it’s not the same as yours, but at least you’ll have something to remember those good times with your mother.”

Chrysalis looked back at the book in silence before finally taking it out of Cadenza’s hands. Her fingers grazing over the greenish leather and the silvery writings of the cover as Cadenza’s smile grew wider at her friend’s acceptance of her improvised gift. The greenette let out a peaceful sigh in remembrance of the many evenings and nights she had bothered her mother into reading her this particular fairy tale.

“I’m sorry it’s not exactly in perfect condition,” Cadenza stated with a wince as Chrysalis started to leaf through the pages of the children’s book. “I read it quite a lot when I was little and I think it wasn’t exactly new when my uncle Legato gave it to me, if I remember correctly,” she added in a slightly ashamed tone as Chrysalis glanced over the many torn and scratched corners of page the book had.

“It’s okay,” Chrysalis assured softly. “I didn’t know you had an Uncle though,” Chrysalis commented casually, her eyes not leaving the pages as she sometimes paused her leafing to read some of favorite passages. “How come I haven’t seen him yet?”

“He used to be around here all the time, being Father’s best friend and personal advisor and all. He retired himself from the court’s business when he hurt his back in a horse-riding accident four years ago,” Cadenza explained slowly. “From what I know, he can barely remain standing for more than a few minutes, so he doesn’t leave his domain anymore. He even gave his golden signet ring to Bolero a few months after the accident,” she added with a brief sigh.

“Sorry to hear that,” Chrysalis commented empathetically as she almost reached the end of the old book. “If you don’t mind me asking, was your Uncle’s family rather poor?” she asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“No, the Tessitura family was, and probably still is, one of the richest houses in Istalloña,” Cadenza replied casually. “Why do you ask?”

“It just that I find it hard to believe that a rich noble would buy a second-hand book for the birthday of his princess niece,” Chrysalis commented playfully before closing the book and glancing at the back cover of it.

“It’s a first edition copy, Chryssie,” Cadenza defended her uncle with an embarrassed blush. “Those are hard to come by!”

“Oh… A first edition copy. …. How odd for her to have something so valuable, don’t you think?”

“I don’t really know, since I hardly read anything except docking manifests, sir.”

"It's a shame really. You're missing on a lot of stuff…… Tssss, children are always so messy."

“I’m sure they are,” Chrysalis commented quietly as her eyes wouldn’t leave the dried line of red polish-like paint stain on the back of the green leather cover.

A stain very much like the one Chrysalis had accidently made on the first edition version of “The Sculptor-King and the Flower-maid” that had been stolen from her when she was shipped off to Nadira by the man in the mask.

*******************************************************************************************

A few weeks later, Count Legato Tessitura’s Estate.

“Do you have anything you need, Count?” Maria, the count’s young personal maid, asked gently after helping the crippled man out of his wheelchair into his large bathtub.

“Well, you joining me in here would be nice,” The Count playfully demanded, trying to take a seductive pose in the water, only to wince and groan in pain as the strain on his broken spine proved to be too much.

“Do we have to do this every single time I put you in something, Count?” the unfazed maid asked with her arms crossed over her chest.

“If you’d just comply, we wouldn’t have to,” Legato sassily replied, before leaning his head on the bath-pillow at the edge of the tub, letting his body float back up.

“This isn’t for fun, Count,” Maria reminded, pulling her sleeves up past her elbows. “Now, try to relax,” she ordered softly before dipping both her hands in the water.

The maid exhaled slowly before a pair dark blue wings appeared on her back. A fume of steam started to appear above the surface of the water. The count winced at the sudden warmth of the water, only to wince harder when Maria exhaled again, this time making the water’s temperature drop drastically. And thus the daily cycle of hot and cold baths began for Count Legato, and quickly enough the discomfort due the changes of temperature left place to the welcome relaxation of his muscles.

“AAAAaaah,” Legato sighed in deep relief. “You really are the best, Maria,” he whispered contently as the maid kept half of her focus on her task at hand.

“Just let me know if you feel uncomfortable at any time,” Maria replied in an even tone before remembering something she had to say to her master. “You’ve received another letter from your sister by the way,”

“What does Cavatina want this time?” Legato asked in a lazy voice as the therapy did its work.

“She’s asking if you are feeling healthy enough to attend to your niece’s birthday celebration this year,” Maria explained before turning her head toward the bathroom’s windows as the guard dogs in the gardens started barking. “Scutem won’t be happy if it’s another stray cat,” she commented softly.

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

“He keeps telling me that the guards are bored and are missing some good action,” Count Legato retorted playfully. “A wild chase around the domain should rejoice him,” he added with a mocking chuckle.

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

“It would help his mood if you’d just go out of this castle once in awhile, Count,” Maria commented calmly, her brain trying the tune out the barking pack who was probably running around after whatever small animal they had scented. “You’ve been cooped up in here long enough,”

“Perhaps I have,” Legato admitted slowly. “Though, going back to Maredrid isn’t my idea of a nice, relaxing outing,” he added spitefully, a bit louder than before due the constant barking coming from the outside.

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

“It won’t be so bad,” Maria assured softly. “Your nephews will probably be happy to see you,” she added with a brief smile.

“Oh, Maria, if only that was true,” Legato commented with a dry chuckle. “They all have better things to do than to care for their old, broken uncle,” he added bitterly, glaring at the nearby window as Maria pulled one of her hands out of the water.

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

“You’re the one who doesn’t answer their letters, Count,” Maria reminded sharply as she reached for the chain of the tub’s tap. “Now, let’s get you out of the tub,” she added more gently as the water was slowly sucked into the drain.

With practiced ease, Maria brought the wheelchair closer to the tub with the help of her foot and placed her right arm and wing into the draining water, just between the Count’s back and the ceramic of the tub. Grunting a bit, the maid quickly pulled her master out of the water and gently placed him back in his wheelchair, on top of which laid his open bathrobe.

Count Legato let out a relieved sigh as his freshly relaxed upper-muscles found the familiar comfort of his padded chair while Maria took a dry towel from a nearby cabinet. As he passed his arms into his robe’s sleeves, the maid kneeled down to dry his bony, inert legs. Calm and professional, Maria kept rubbing the moisture away up to her master’s chest, who remained silent except to sigh briefly and sadly at the known fact he felt the towel only a few centimeters above his hips.

Once most of his body had been taken care of, Maria stood back up and gave the towel to Legato, who had knotted his bathrobe’s belt closed, so that he could start drying his hair. The maid then went to the sink cabinet. A few seconds of search later, she turned around with a hairbrush in hand and cast a glance at the nearby window when she realized the dogs had finally stopped barking. She immediately dropped the brush and let out a shocked and panicked gasp.

“What is it?” Legato asked, confused by his maid’s sudden gasp, slowly turning the wheelchair to face her. “....Maria?” He asked softly at the sight of her shaking like a leaf.

Maria frightfully took a step away from the window. Away from the macabre display of the gutted six dogs that usually watched the domain, all being held in the air by the collar by black insect-like monsters. Away from the sight of the other dozens of those scary intruders who were casually making their way toward the Estate.

“What is going on?!” Legato asked worriedly, forcing Maria to look back at him for a few seconds. “What did you see?”

“...... SCUTEM!” Maria screamed as a reply before dashing for bathroom door. “WE’RE UNDER ATT...ack,” Maria’s cry for the captain of the Count’s guards died in her throat when she stepped into the main corridor of the second floor.

From where she stood, she could see that the front doors of the estate had been rammed through. The domain was filled with the terrified screams of the household’s servants drowned under the feral hisses of their attackers and the clashes of steel against chitin. She witnessed many of the guards being overrun by the monsters: their bodies pierced by the black claw-like spines of their attackers. A familiar scream rang to her ears and when she turned around, she saw one of her fellow maids’ head flying off its owner’s neck.

The responsible stood tall above Maria’s friend’s headless body, its blue pupil-less eyes focused on the shocked maid a few feet from him. When it braced its sharp claws and bared its fangs at her in a violent hiss, Maria reacted quicker than she would have thought. Spreading her dark blue wings open, she threw a bright lightning bolt at the monster. It didn’t move a single inch to dodge the Jupitarian shape, and it took it right in the head. Or it would have, if the lightning hadn’t flew right through its skull.

“....W-what?!” Maria let out in confusion as the black insectoid reared its head, as if taking a deep breath. “...You’re not r-eal,” she whispered as she noticed its right foot fazing through the back of the dead maid. “This is… not real…”

“Maria, dodge!” Count Legato warned in a scared scream, having moved to the open door to see what was happening.

“It’s okay, Count,” Maria replied shakily. “There’s no need to worry…. Nothing is real a....”

Maria’s response was cut short when the monster seemingly spat a long dark spine at her. The projectile hit her right in the middle of the chest, slamming into the nearby wall, on which her body didn’t slide off. Maria coughed some of her blood, looking down as the spine in her chest vanished to be replaced by the feathery end of a crossbow bolt that held her nailed to the wall.

She painfully looked back at the creature that had shot her, only to see a young woman, barely a couple of years older than her, with long, deep green hair, clad a black, chitinous armor, pointing an empty crossbow at her. Maria’s vision got blurry as she witnessed the greenette casually put the crossbow on a nearby furniture before walking for the bathroom.

“Just so you know,” she told the fatally wounded maid in a comforting tone. “Had I been a bit taller, you’d have successfully rescued your cripple of a Count,” she added with a patronizing tap on the cheek before walking inside the bathroom.

“W-who are you?” Count Legato asked in terror as the armored woman locked the door behind her, silencing the difficult last breaths of Maria and the sounds of the fights happening in the atrium. “What do you want?!”

The green-haired woman sized him up with with a raised eyebrow before taking a thick, folded piece of fabric from a large pouch at her belt. Seemingly ignoring him as she unfolded the fabric, Legato’s hand slowly reached down his chair’s right side in order to grab the hidden dagger his captain of the guard had insisted upon. His fingers grazed the pommel before the whole chair glowed brightly green and was flipped over like a pancake.

“That wasn’t a very bright idea, Count,” Chrysalis commented over Legato’s screams of pain from hitting the floor violently.

With a flick of her finger, Chrysalis discarded the wheelchair towards the bathtub, breaking the chair and the tub alike with the strength of her magic. She then examined the portrait she had brought with her, and the moaning man lying on the floor a few feet away. Time and his horse-riding accident, hadn’t been kind on Count Legato : his athletic build had melted into a frail body, his golden blond hair were coursed by large strands of white or grey. He looked about fifteen or twenty years older than on his portrait, which Chrysalis had borrowed from his sister’s office in Maredrid. Which was quite a lot, considering the portrait had been made a few weeks prior to his accident.

“That being said, I have a few questions that only you can answers,” Chrysalis said evenly, crouching next to the writhing noble. “If you don’t mind me asking, of course,” she added playfully as Legato pushed himself up a little bit. “First of all, is that you on this portrait?” She asked, showing him the portrait.

“....W-here did you get that?” Legato asked difficulty, groaning as he tried to keep himself off the ground. “AAAARGH!” He let out in pain after the green-haired woman slapped his right arm away, making him fall heavily back on the floor.

“I want answers, not questions,” Chrysalis retorted calmly. “Is that you on this portrait?” She asked again, almost shoving the painting in his face.

“Yes,” Legato whimpered softly, not trying to lift himself up anymore.

“I found this portrait in Princess Cavatina’s office,” Chrysalis explained sternly. “What is the nature of your relationship with her?”

“She’s my sister,” Legato replied submissively.

“So that makes you the motherly uncle of the Princess Cadenza and the Princes Bolero and Crescendo, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Did you hurt your back on a horse-riding accident four years ago?”

“Yes!”

“Did you work as Prince Fortissimo’s advisor before the accident?”

“Yes!”

“Did you ever scheme against Fortissmo’s reign?”

“No!”

“Did you visit a woman named Farfallina who lived in the slums of Maredrid?”

“.....W-wh-whaAAARGHHH!’ He screamed as Chrysalis vigorously slammed her fist into his lower back.

“Did you visit a woman named Farfallina who lived in the slums of Maredrid?” Chrysalis asked again, keeping the pressure on Legato’s spine.

“....Y...YES!”

“Why?!” Chrysalis demanded loudly, as a green aura started surrounding her hand, magically enhancing the pressure she was applying onto the Count. “Why did you visit that woman?! Who was she to you?!” She roared over Legato’s pained screams. “ANSWER ME!!”

“...She..” Legato began, tears of dolor pouring out of his eyes as he felt his fragile bones cracking under the pressure. “...She was… She was my other sister!”

As soon as Chrysalis processed what he had said, her magic ceased to work. The shock of the news completely broke her focus, and all the illusions she had cast on the domain’s inhabitants broke as well. Outside the bathroom, the young maid Maria sat up against the wall, holding her aching head in both her hands, just like her formerly decapitated colleague. In the Atrium, the still fighting guards realized they were swinging their weapons at nothing, while their dead comrades shook their heads like dogs to recover their confusion. As Chrysalis was still stunned by the reveal, Legato rolled away from her before bellowing for help.

“SCUTEM! THE COUNT IS IN DANGER! HURRY UP!” Maria’s voice shouted back from beyond the bathroom door, after remembering her short interaction with the woman in the black armor.

This and Maria’s attempts to open the bathroom’s door brought Chrysalis out of her daze, her eyes finding their way back to the Count who was crawling backwards away from her. She heard many people running closer as the maid tried to shove the door open, and decided to stand back up. With a flick of her hand, green light-made chains appeared around Legato, restricting his movement even more than his crippled state could. She then turned her head to the bathroom’s door.

“We’ll continue this conversation in a few minutes…… Uncle,” Chrysalis declared softly as she unlocked the door with her magic, ignoring the widening shocked eyes of the Count Legato.

The door was slammed open by the young maid Maria, whose momentum had carried her into the bathroom as Chrysalis’ gloves morphed into thick, spiky gauntlets. The Swarmlady reared her fist back before punching the running servant right in the middle of her face in a sinister crack. Before Maria’s body had even touched the ground that Chrysalis had already reached for the door, and the shocked guard that stood in it. And so began what would later be discovered by the Equestrian Army as the butchery of the Tessitura Estate.

Author's Note

And there you go! The masked man was part of the nobility of Istalloña all along! (though you already knew that!)

Only one chapter and an epilogue left for this story.

I hope you've enjoyed so far.

Let me know what you think about it in the comment sections. Feedback is always appreciated.

Regards,

Mariacheat.

The Queen Rises

The morning of Mi Amore Cadenza’s eighteenth birthday, Seven years and a quarter before the Canterlot Wedding, …

The three children of the Mi Amore household were gathered around an extremely long table, which was necessary for the extremely copious breakfast that was laid out for all three of them.The youngest of them, Crescendo was happily filling his stomach almost without any care for protocol and table manners while the middle child, and birthday-girl, had been lifelessly poking at her food without actually eating it.

“You should eat, Cadenza,’’ the older brother, Bolero, said while Bastante, their father’s steward, had just come back in the room and witnessed the poor manners displayed by Crescendo. “Unless you also want Bastante on your back as well,” he added playfully as his younger brother was suddenly interrupted by a disapproving cough and a poke on his shoulder.

‘’Hmmm,’’ Cadence replied in an even mumble as she watched the yellow of her eggs drip along her fork and into her plate.

‘’Come on! Don’t be such sour puss,’’ Bolero advised with a sigh.

“I’ll be a sour puss if I want to be one,” Cadence weakly retorted, her eyes focused on her fork which was now playing with the whites of her eggs.

“Look, I can understand that you’re still mad because Mother couldn’t invite your Canterlot friends…”

“Didn’t invite!” Cadence corrected her older brother angrily.

“...But you can always have a party with them once you’re back in Canterlot,” Bolero continued patiently, as if he hadn’t been interrupted.

“That depends entirely on Mother finding me a husband by the end of the day or not,” Cadence muttered as she remembered the excitement in her mother’s voice when she had talked to her about all the young bachelors of the nobility invited to the celebrations.

“Well, in Mother’s defense, you aren’t in a relationship,” Bolero commented slowly, glancing warily at the steward still watching their younger brother like a hawk. “Or at least that’s what she thinks,” he added in a whisper, barely loud enough for his sister to hear.

"How do you know that?" Cadenza whispered back in a threatening tone.

"Heard you and Chrysalis trying to discreetly talk about it once or twice," Bolero replied slowly. "You talk louder than you think when you're excited," he added matter-of-factly.

"And you haven't told Mother because?"

"Because I believe you should tell it to Mother and Father yourself when you feel ready to do so," Bolero stated softly. "Also, don't worry about to tonight, I'll try to keep Mother distracted from the suitors she has lined up for you. You do deserve to have fun on your birthday after all."

Cadenza narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the all too sweet, brotherly look Bolero was giving her.

"....And what do you want in return for that favor, Brother?"

After checking that Bastante was still on Crescendo's case and thus wasn't paying attention to them, Bolero leaned in closer to his sister.

"Can you convince Chrysalis to dance with me tonight?" Bolero asked in a softer whisper, his cheeks taking slightly pinker hue.

"Hmmmm.... I don't think Mother will approve of that, Bolero," Cadenza commented with a sly grin.

"Well, just like you, I'm not looking for Mother's approval in that matter," Bolero retorted, casting a brief wink that prompted a short giggle from Cadenza.

"I'll try my best, I can promise you that," Cadenza replied softly before turning her gaze back on her food.

"Thank you, Cadenza," Bolero let out with excitement filling his whisper

Their exchange had gone unnoticed by the steward and the two siblings decided to leave it at that and began eating the content of their respective plate just like before, with the only difference being that Cadenza seemed in a much better mood than earlier. She was almost done with her breakfast when a servant came by with a massive stack of envelopes stashed on a platter. When the young man carrying the platter informed her that all the letters were addressed to her and that they most likely contained birthday cards and best wishes for her, Cadenza’s mood perked up even better than before. At her older brother’s suggestion, the young princess left what was left of her breakfast aside and retired to her quarters to enjoy her correspondence.

An hour of reading later, Cadenza was still happier than this morning, but her happiness was tainted with a little bit of melancholy. Half of the letters she received were from her acquaintances and friends from Canterlot, all of whom hadn’t been invited by her mother, or in Princess Celestia’s case probably couldn’t come even if she actually wanted to.

The letter from the High Princess of Equestria had surprised Cadenza quite a bit. When reading through the first sentences of their letters, the young Istalloñan girl first thought it was merely ‘standardized’ letter from a scribe that Celestia had just signed without actually reading it first hand, as it was often a common practice amongst nobility, but as she kept going through it, the letter became more personal as the Sun Princess mentioned that she was awaiting Cadenza’s return to Canterlot as she was beginning to miss their afternoon conversations over a cup of tea. Cadenza could almost hear Celestia sigh in her warm motherly voice as she read her quote on how tea was already a dull beverage to begin with and that her absence had suddenly made it duller than before.

There was also the letter that came from Twilight Sparkle who kept writing about all that happened to her and that she wanted to tell her babysitter, stuff like her recent ‘research paper’ on the various types of gems and their magical properties, along with a short paragraph from her parents wishing her a happy birthday and jokingly write that they hope she comes back soon as they ‘need’ an extra pair of arms to handle their genius twelve-year-old of a daughter. While reading a few passages from her letter, Cadenza was certain that Twilight had originally planned on sending her copy of that research paper along with her message. The young princess guessed that her parents had stopped her from doing that.

And then, there was Shining’s letter, which she had read at least a dozen times already and probably wouldn’t mind reading again a dozen more times. The young knight was missing her and he had sent her all of his love as well as the more traditional best wishes for her birthday. All those words sent butterflies in her stomach before her heart caught on the fact that her lover couldn’t be there for her birthday because of her mother’s plan to have the young noble gentlemen of Istalloña court her during tonight’s party.

Tonight is going to suck, even with Bolero's efforts to distract Mother… Cadenza thought with a long sigh before she carefully stored Shining’s letter, as well as Twilight and Celestia’s, in one of her locked cabinet.

Once that was done, the princess began storing her other letters in less safe places, as those didn’t matter as much as the first three, before installing herself at her desk to begin writing her response letters. She had some time ahead before someone, a servant or her mother, would interrupt her to get prepared for the reception.

The interruption came during her redaction of her third response, the one aimed to Celestia, in the form of three gentle knocks against her quarters’ door. Slightly puzzled by the fact it was still quite early for her to get ready, Cadenza finished her sentence, dried the ink with a quick spell of her light blue magic and stashed her letters on a corner of her desk before allowing whoever had knocked to come in.

‘’Sorry to bother you, your Highness,’’ a female maid asked as she came inside the room with a couple of other servants in tow. ‘’Your mother has sent us to help you prepare for tonight,’’ she explained softly with a deep bow as Cadenza turned to face her.

Cadenza’s eyes widened in shock at sheer size of the clothes chest the maid’s co-workers brought in her room as the maid in question gently closed the door behind them. It was so big that the two servants carrying it could have both fitted in it. The princess more than understood their relieved sigh as their load was gently lowered onto the floor, just next to the much smaller chest at the end of her bed, and didn’t bothered commenting on it. It was expected of the castle’ servants to be as discreet and silent as an ant when performing their appointed tasks, Cadenza reasoned that even if the chest was half as heavy as it looked be, she could close her eyes on that small protocol breach. Even if the maid seemed inclined to expect it, if the dark glare she cast at them was of any indication.

“I am surprised you’re here this early,’’ Cadenza casually commented, earning the three maids’ full attention. “The party only starts in the late afternoon after all.’’

‘’Indeed it does, your Highness,” the first maid agreed with a nod. “But, it is your mother’s instructions that we see to you this early,” she added before waving at the chest. “After all, you have to pick amongst the twenty-five dresses that Princess Cavatina has ordered for your birthday,”

“...Twenty-five dresses?” Cadenza slowly asked back, her voice unable to mask the piqued interest that she was feeling.

“From Maris’ best designers, your Highness,” one of the two maids that had carried the chest inside gently added. “I believe she organized some sort of contest. The one designer whose dress you pick will have the opportunity to renew all of yours and Princess Cavatina’s wardrobes for the next season.”

“Really?!”

“That is what we’ve heard, your Highness,” the third maid replied with a quick nod.

“Well, in that case, we ought to be really careful in our selection, don’t we?’’ Cadenza asked with a soft grin.

“Indeed we do, your Highness,” The first maid replied before inviting the princess closer to the chest with a polite wave. “Shall we begin?” she asked as the other two servants leaned down to open the chest.

“We shall!” Cadenza joyfully stated as she took one step forward, a happy smile lighting up her face.

On her way to the chest, Cadenza closed her eyes for the time of a blink. While her eyes were closed she felt a brief stinging sensation on her neck. She raised her hand to delicately and discreetly scratch the hitch away. For some reason, she felt a yawn making its way out of her and used the momentum of her hand to make it go higher so that it could mask her open mouth in a ladylike fashion. And then she opened her eyes again and startling confusion filled her head as she let out a soft and shaky ‘what?’.

Instead of standing in her quarters, sporting her high quality pink dress, she was sitting in an empty train compartment, clad in a basic, and slightly dirty, cream dress along with a thick, brown, travelling coat on top of her. The princess looked at the window of her compartment, noticing that the sun was beginning to set behind the massive forest that filled the horizon whereas it was close to midday a blink ago.

“Wha-what is happening?” Cadenza voiced her thoughts out loud in a panicking tone before she stood up to reach for the door.

An instant feeling a drowsiness took over her body, almost making her fall back on her seat. Using the handle of the door as leverage, she steadied herself while massaging her temple with her free hand. Cadenza groaned heavily as she felt like something was trying to break out of her skull with pickaxe.

It took her what felt like a minute or two, but in the end, she recovered from the sudden feeling and stepped out of the compartment into the corridor. There, she looked through the window again and could see what stood on the other side of the train. It completely shocked her and froze in place, oblivious to the train attendant that had just entered the wagon she was in.

She knew the mountains that stood proudly in front of her eyes, everyone in the continent knew of those mountains. They were drawn in many children’s first books, especially the high peak on the side of which a massive city had been built. She recognized the spiral towers that seemed to reach for the skies; the artificial waterfalls that fell from the sides of the City before magically vanishing in thin air; the pristine white walls that seemed to merged with the mountain itself, as if they have been carved off it centuries ago. Only one city in the whole continent had those features.

“Canterlot…” Cadenza whispered in shock just before the train attendant noticed her and asked if she needed anything.

A few hours earlier, during the celebration at Mi-Amore Castle, ...

Cadenza quietly stood against one of the smallest windows of the ballroom, rudely ignoring any guest that came to talk with her, much to her mother’s displeasure and to her brother and father’s sadness.

“What is that girl doing?!” Cavatina nearly growled through her grinding teeth as Duke Di-Corazon of Marecelona approached her moody daughter. “She’s going to cause a scene if that continues!” she added as the Duke bowed to Cadenza who didn’t look away from the window.

“Maybe you should have invited some of her Canterlot friends, Mother,” Prince Bolero suggested uneasily with a wince. “That probably would have put her in a better mood,” he said in a hopeful tone.

“Those Equestrian peasants do not have their places here, Bolero!” Cavatina retorted angrily, her eyes still on the Duke who was trying to charm Cadenza away from her window.

“I can’t be one hundred percent sure, Dear, but I hardly think there are a lot of peasants in Canterlot.” Fortissimo retorted coldly as he scanned through the rest of their guests with a frown. “Of course, they’ve already begun talking…” he added more to himself than anything else as he could see everyone whispering around while throwing occasionally displeased stares at the birthday princess.

“Do you want me to bring Cadenza to her room, Father?” Bolero asked softly. “At least until she agrees to try and enjoy the evening?”

“This reception is in her honor!” Cavatina angrily remarked. “She’s supposed to stay here or that would be worse for her image!” She added, barely containing her voice to a whisper.

“Worse than what she’s doing now?” Bolero asked back while discreetly pointing at the Duke Di-Corazon angrily walking away from the stoic princess. “I don’t think so!”

“Bolero’s right, Cavatina,” Fortissimo sighed before stepping towards his daughter. “I’ll go talk to her, you and Bolero try to divert the attention from her.”

On his way to Cadenza, Prince Fortissimo heard the band his wife had hired for the evening beginning to play and from the corner of his eye, he spotted Bolero having the first dance of the evening with one of the daughters of the Count of Alicolt. Following his example, many couples joined the dance floor and little by little, all eyes left the lonely, brooding princess whose birthday they were celebrating.

When he reached her side, Cadenza slightly turned around to see who had joined her this time. A glint of surprise passed over her features for a second when she recognized her father.

“Father,” Cadenza let out in acknowledgement before focusing her attention outside.

“Cadenza, can I talk to you for a bit?” Fortissimo asked softly, his hands gently pointing her towards to the door of the ballroom.

“Sure,” Cadenza replied casually, not moving from her spot.

“I meant in private,” Fortissimo commented slowly.

“Thanks to Bolero and Cavatina no one is paying attention to me anymore, Father,” Cadenza retorted evenly. “We can talk here.”

“Why?” Fortissimo asked impatiently. “Why do you want to stay here?! What’s so interesting outside?!”

“Did you know that from here, you have the perfect view on the courtyard and the stables?” Cadenza asked back casually. “From here you can see all the horses and carriages that brought our guests to this party,” she added as she scanned the now filled courtyard. “Ever since I installed myself at this window, I counted about eighty four carriages arriving on the castle grounds as well as a half a dozen of servants for each carriage,” she paused to quickly glancing at the crowd behind her slightly stunned father.

“Adding that our two-hundred guests, that’s more than seven hundred people that came for my birthday.” She paused for a few seconds before continuing in a saddened whisper. “Even if most of them wouldn’t have bothered if I had been someone else than Mi-Amore Cadenza!”

“Cadenza…” Fortissimo whispered gently when he heard the sadness in her voice.

“Father, why all this?” Cadenza asked softly as she briefly waved at the sumptuous buffet and all the mountain of gifts that her guests had brought. “What did I do to deserve so much effort from the people who basically slave for us?! So much money spent on me for something as anecdotic as a birthday?!” She looked briefly at the guests her mother had invited. “So many suitors lining up before me for the love I will refuse to give them?!” Cadenza sighed and lowered her gaze onto her feet.

“Cadenza, you’re my daughter,” Fortissimo said gently. “I’m willing to give you everything I can just because of that,” he explained softly, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Every decent parent wants to spoil their children and would do anything for them.”

“You would anything for your children, Father?” Cadenza asked in a cold, even tone as she raised her eyes to meet Fortissimo’s.

A great sense of unease washed over the Prince’s whole body as Cadenza focused her light purple eyes on his own. They had always shone brightly with happiness and playfulness, even when she used to pout or frown in sadness or anger it would never reach her eyes somehow. She had always been such a happy child, but now it was different. Her eyes showed none of her usual playfulness, none of her standard upbeat attitude. They were as cold as ice, as overwhelming as a storm, as sharp as a dagger.

“Of course, I would,” The prince defended himself in a shaky voice.

“Then why didn’t you?” Cadenza asked in a whisper.

“W...What?... I have always given Bolero, Crescendo and you everything I could!” he shouted in anger at the accusation, inadvertently bringing a few gazes back on his daughter’s location. “I’ve never played favorite with any of you!”

“While that statement is certainly debatable, I wasn’t talking about us three, Father,” Cadenza retorted her cold voice full of disdain. “I was talking about your other children.”

Fortissimo’s face lost all its colors when Cadenza let those words out of her mouth loud enough for anyone paying attention to hear. The few soft gasps resonating behind him let the prince know that a few people had indeed heard it.

“What are you talking about?” he managed to ask back in a steady tone despite his mind wanting his voice to break down in stutter so that it would match its state. “I only have three childr…”

“Nineteen children according to Uncle Legato,” Cadenza corrected him coldly and matter-of-factly. “And considering the circumstances of his confession, I’m inclined to believe him.”

As those words flew past her lips, a flash of green washed over his daughter’s eyes, Prince Fortissimo’s were assaulted by an image of his half-naked brother-in-law lying on the ground, next to the bloody body of a maid, a heavy black, spiky boot putting pressure on his broken spine as he let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain that resonated through the prince’s ears.

“In addition to the three children you have with Cavatina, there were the fisherman’s daughter’s male twins from Alicolt,” Cadenza began softly. “The three children from the tavern wrench in Marecelona, two boys and one girl; four girls and one boy from various peasants girls from the countryside around Mare-Bella; another set of twins, female this time, from a servant girl that used to work on your aunt’s domain in Trotledo; as well as three boys from three sisters near the border of Prance…. You sure enjoyed the time you had before you were officially married to Cavatina, didn’t you Father?” Cadenza asked before letting out a derogatory chuckle.

“Caden…”

“Oh, silly me, that only makes eighteen!” Cadenza interrupted him dryly as he uncomfortably shuffled on his feet as more and more guests were slowly turning their attention back at them. “I forgot the last child you had before Bolero!” she stated loudly while unhappily chuckling to herself. “The child that was probably the biggest insult you’ve ever made to Cavatina, whom you were promised to since you were fifteen!” Her eyes and hand began to glow in deep green hue at the same time as Fortissimo’s whole face.

Shocked gasps resonated through the ballroom as Fortissimo felt the air around him crushing his head. Out of reflex, he tried to conjure his own Titanian magic to break the spell around his skull, only to fail miserably. The magic that held him prisoner dragged him closer to Cadenza’s face, on which he could only see hate and contempt in her now green eyes.

“During your wedding celebration, you drank too much and couldn’t wait for your wedding night to come!” Cadenza told coldly. “You wanted to corner your wife in a supply closet or whatever and convince her to consummate the wedding earlier than planned…” The magic around him pressed harder than before making the prince groan in pain. “Except it wasn’t your wife, wasn’t it?! The one you took into that closet was her younger sister, Farfallina Tessitura! The woman who confessed the affair to her family when she found out she was pregnant with the crown Prince’s child! The woman who, when forced by her parents to keep quiet about her ‘disgraceful mistake’ and to get rid of it , decided to abandon her wealth and family instead.”

Cadenza’s blood boiled in righteous fury as she used the same words her late Uncle Legato had quoted from his father, her grand-father, when he told her how her mother chose her over her family. Her ‘cadenza’ voice cracked and took a more adult tone while her hair slowly lost its three cheerful colors in favor of a deep green. Her skin lost his inviting fairness to a deep, brown hue; her all body grew taller, curvier as it abandoned its disguise just before the fancy dress she had chosen transformed itself into a suit of black chitinous armor in a flash of bright green light.

“C-Chry-Chrysalis?!” Fortissimo managed to utter in pained shock.

“Goodbye, Father!” Chrysalis whispered viciously, her voice full of venom at her last word. “Knowing you wasn’t a pleasure at all!”

As soon as she said that, the Swarmlady forced the magic around her father’s head away with all her willpower, ignoring the screams of dolor he was letting out as he felt the skin of his neck rip itself open and the bone upper-spine crack until both broke under the pressure.

Leaving his body, Fortissimo’s head was catapulted away from Chrysalis, causing big gushes of blood out of his decapitated body and terrorized and shocked screams from the closest guests. The flying head of the Prince of Istalloña heavily landed on a buffet table, right into one of the many cakes that had been prepared for Cadenza. And just as Chrysalis had planned in her anger, it had landed in a plain view of Cavatina, just a few feet from her.

The Princess began trembling in shock at the sight of her husband’s head, her mouth opening repeatedly but without any sounds managing to come out of it. Her legs gave up under her a few seconds later and she remained kneeling on the floor, her eyes never leaving her husband’s dead irises.

The closest guests from Cavatina mainly imitated their princess and stared blankly at the head of their ruler, most of them being too shocked to do anything else. The rest of the guests, slowly turned their eyes onto Chrysalis’ armored figured. As for Bolero who had still been holding his dancing position with the shocked young Countess of Alicolt, shock was slowly leaving his handsome features to showcase a hateful glare at the woman who had just killed his father.

Slowly, Bolero left the countess’ side and stepped toward Chrysalis, his trembling fists tightening in a rage he had never felt before. A lot of the remaining guests did just like him, some of them reaching for the dress swords, others conjuring sparks of lightnings on their hands as wings flared threateningly open on their backs. The few magically inclined Titanians in the audience also focused their magic into their hands or fingers, their spells ready to fire should it be necessary. As the Prince stepped closer to Chrysalis, the fifty guards that had been stationed across the ballroom quickly formed a loose rank between the nobles and the murderer, their halberds’ heads facing the former right hand of Prince Fortissimo.

“Bolero, I strongly advise you to not do what you think of doing,” Chrysalis called softly, completely unfazed by the more than hundred opponents facing her.

“You’re not in a position to give me advice, Chrysalis!” Bolero retorted angrily. “If I didn’t want to know your reasons, I would have already ordered the guards to kill you where you stand!”

“Because you think they could if you gave that order?” Chrysalis asked back, her voice laced with so much confidence that it made some of the guards and guests uneasy. “You’re cute when you’re clueless like that,” she added in a condescendingly teasing tone.

Had she say something like that a few hours before, Bolero’s reaction would have been to sheepishly scratch the back of his head while trying to stop the blush to come to his cheeks, now his reaction was to cast a beam of bright blue light at her chest plate. The closest guards were slightly startled by the sudden beam rapidly travelling between them. The ray of magic hit its target exactly where Bolero had aimed it.

The force of the impact threw Chrysalis against the arch separating the two windows she was standing in front of. Her chest plate was strongly dented in where the magic had struck and left the murderer completely out of breath. The sudden, successful attack invoked a brief cheer from the guards and some of the nobles. But then Bolero heard Chrysalis’ mocking chuckle coming from behind him.

“Just who exactly are you aiming at, Bolero?”

The cheers were immediately replaced by screams of surprised horror as the Chrysalis thrown against the wall was instantly replaced by the noble girl who had been standing behind Bolero a second ago, her chest sporting a massive gaping hole the size of a fist exactly where Bolero's magic had hit Chrysalis. A constant flow of blood poured out of the wound as the girl’s breathing became more ragged and heavy by the second, until it came to full stop and that her body collapsed on the ground. Completely aghast, Prince Bolero slowly turned his head in the direction Chrysalis’ voice had come from. His irises tried to reduce themselves to the size of pinpricks when he saw the black armored woman standing not three feet from him, an expression of pure malice sprayed over her face.

“W-what?!”

“Wanna take another shot, pretty boy?” Chrysalis taunted with a devilish grin. “You probably should. Don’t want to end up like your father, do you?!”

An angry scream later, another beam of blue light burst out of Bolero’s hand and struck Chrysalis straight in between the eyes. Her body fell lifelessly as streams of blood pearled out of the hole Bolero’s magic had caused. The murderer remained still at the Prince’s feet for a few seconds before her body was replaced by the one of a guard bearing the Mi-Amor sigil on his breastplate. His now lifeless eyes staring back at Bolero in an expression of confused exclamation, as if he had seen the Prince not only turn in his direction before shooting him without reason.

“Missed!” Chrysalis’ voice called from the buffet.

All gazes turned to see her leaning backwards against the table on top of which Fortissimo’s head had landed, one hand bringing a glass of wine to her lips while the other kept her steady. A young girl in the audience let out a lout ‘’The Princess!” as she realized that Cavatina was exactly where she had fallen on her knees, which happened to be just within reach of where Chrysalis had reappeared.

“Well, not that it isn’t fun,” Chrysalis let out calmly as she put her empty glass back on the table before walking up to the catatonic Princess. “But I have a small business to attend with Princess Cavatina here!” she added loudly, placing a her hand on an unresponsive shoulder of Cavatina.

“Don’t touch her!” Bolero’s voice rang through the room with force, while his bright magic was glowing in his hand.

“Bolero, I would love to continue to have our little dance, but as I said, I have something to do with your dear mother,” Chrysalis explained casually as a green magic gathered itself around her free hand. “Don’t worry though, I thought of bringing some entertainment for the party!” she added as the main doors of the ballroom in the same green hue as her hand.

With a flick of her hand, the doors were slammed open, revealing a large troop of men and women clad in the same black chitinous armor as Chrysalis, with the sole exception that most of them were also sporting a helmet with a black mask displaying huge, insect-like blue eyes covering their face. Some of the newcomers were still in the middle of executing the last guards alive of the corridor.

“Vigil!” Chrysalis shouted at the giant of a man standing with his arms crossed in the middle of the Changeling ranks. “You know what to do!” she reminded before teleporting herself and Cavatina away.

Vigil Locust’s eyes scanned the crowd of nobles step away from the doors in terror, some of them actually running away towards the service doors of the ballroom. Then, he focused his deep blue gaze on the angered Prince of Istalloña around whom the guards and the battle-ready nobles had gathered. He uncrossed his arms and took one step forward. That was the signal his and Chrysalis’ changelings had been waiting. They stormed into the room, the more excited of them cheering loudly as half of the nobles broke away in terror and the other half tried to counter charge. And thus, the Battle for Istalloña began.

A while later, somewhere in the slums …

A full bucket of ice cold water thrown at her face finally brought Princess Cavatina Tessitura out of her catatonic state. The last thing her mind had processed was the head of her husband landing in a cake just next to her, and now she was kneeling in the middle of a dusty, dilapidated room. She raised her hands to chase the pearls of water that blurred her vision, only to see a broken, one person bed next to what was left of a rustic wardrobe.

While Cavatina asked herself where she was, she also looked around to see a woman in black armor putting down an empty bucket in the corner of the room. When the woman turned around to face, Cavatina realized who it was and, out of anger and grief, raised her hand to gather enough magic to blast her husband’s murderer into oblivion. But nothing happened.

The Princess tried to gather her power once more, but again it didn’t manifest itself. It was worst than weakened as not even a spark of her usually dark blue aura appeared around her hand. It was as if her magic had simply disappeared. Her expression must have shown her turmoil to Chrysalis who silently pointed at her own wrist and neck in response.

Cavatina looked closely at her right wrist, finally noticing something under the soaked folds of her sleeve. She pulled the fabric away to reveal a thin, dark metallic band that had been tightly fitted onto her wrist. After a quick examination that proved that her other wrist had been offered the same treatment, Cavatina’s hands flew to her neck, only to feel a tight, metallic collar around it.

‘Lead….’ Cavatina thought with dread as she realized that she was now completely powerless and at Chrysalis’ mercy.

“Now that you seem conscious, I guess we can finally have a quick chat,” Chrysalis called in an emotionless tone as she sat in front of the Princess. “Do you know where we are?”

“....No, I don’t,” Cavatina whispered her reply after scanning briefly through the ruined bedroom.

“Of course, you don’t!” Chrysalis snappily retorted, before waving at their surroundings. “We’re in the house I grew up in. More precisely, in what’s left of my mother’s bedroom. I figured it might be interesting to show it to you….”

“Why?” Cavatina asked in shaken confusion.

“This is where your sister Farfallina lived the rest of her life, Aun...,” Chrysalis interrupted herself with a pensive frown as Cavatina’s eyes widened at the news. “I’m confused, should I call you Aunt or Step-Mother? You know, since you’re my mother’s sister as well as my father’s wife, I’m a bit lost.”

“You are Farfallina’s child?!” Cavatina asked in a trembling voice, earning a brief nod from Chrysalis. “H-How is that possible?!” she nearly shouted, her words laced with fear, surprise and a lot of indignation. “Legato told me you had disappeared years ago...”

“We both know that my late Uncle Legato never told you that,” Chrysalis interrupted her softly. “Don’t bother trying to lie to me, Cavatina. He confessed everything to me before he died. I would have stopped myself at killing Fortissimo and left you alone if he didn’t.”

“What are you saying?” Cavatina let out in fear.

“It wasn’t Fortissimo who ordered Legato to get rid of his bastards,” Chrysalis stated calmly. “It was you, Cavatina Tessitura.” When Cavatina tried to look down, the Swarmlady grabbed her chin and forced her to look up to her. “Fortissimo wanted to enjoy his life before marrying you, he just wanted to have fun before actually becoming your husband, even during your engagement period. You probably even fooled around with him a few times back then… You knew about them, didn’t you? All the flings he has had while he was officially courting you?” Chrysalis took Cavatina’s lack of response as a positive answer before continuing with what Legato had told her before his passing. “You didn’t care back then. You told yourself he would stop after your wedding ceremony. And he did stop…. Just after the accident with my mother…”

“It wasn’t an accident!” Cavatina nearly roared in anger. “That whore threw herself at him on my wedding night! On the night that was supposed to be all about me, my husband impregnated my sister!” She glared at Chrysalis. “And then when she found out about it and confessed to me and my parents, instead of begging for my forgiveness, she had the audacity to beg our parents to let her keep the child, only to run away when she didn’t get what she wanted!” Her voice cracked in her fury, her next words laced with venom. “Farfallina more than deserved the life and death she got in this hell-hole you call a house!”

A deafening silence followed Cavatina’s comment about her sister’s fate. Chrysalis and her aunt held their hard staring contest for a few seconds.

“Let’s say, for the sake of the argument, that I agree with you that what my mother did was despicable and that she deserved her fate as you say,” Chrysalis let out, her whole body trembling at what she was saying about her mother. “How do you justify the command you gave to your brother after she ran away from the Tessitura Domain? The order to dispose of all of your husband’s children? Do you think they also deserved it as well?”

When Cavatina didn’t reply and tried to look away, Chrysalis continued.

”Do you think that I, a twelve year old girl, deserved to be sold like cattle by a man I thought I could trust?! A man who was in reality my uncle?!” Chrysalis shouted, her hand tightening her hold on Cavatina’s face. “That I deserved to be raped almost everyday during the five years that followed?! That I deserved to lose any chance I had at a normal life because of the fact that my father got drunk and fucked the wrong sister?!”

During her angered shout, Chrysalis’ gloves’ fingers morphed into sharp edges that pierced Cavatina’s cheeks, causing a few drops of blood to roll down on them. The princess trembled like a leaf, all traces of her earlier indignation at her sister had left her to be replaced by the terror induced by her niece’s anger.

“I lost everything that I ever knew because of you, Cavatina Tessitura!” Chrysalis let out loudly, her voice cracking in her anger. “I lost my home, my family, my friends, my past, the future that I had and.... I even lost myself on the day Legato brought me to that wretched ship...” she added as her voice shook in sadness for a brief instant and some tears began to peal out of her eyes. “And tonight, you will endure all those losses as well!”

Chrysalis threw Cavatina away from her, causing the princess fall heavily against the cracked wall of her mother’s bedroom. The same cracked wall through which she had been eavesdropping on her mother’s last conversation with her uncle all those years ago.

“The domain of the Tessitura family is a ruin!” Chrysalis declared sternly. “All its inhabitants are dead! All its heirlooms and familial history have been burned to the ground! I saw to it myself!”

The Swarmlady blinked to chase the tears that the remembering of her sack of her Uncle’s castle had brought. More specifically, the memory of the burning of one family portrait, the last one her mother had been featured, happily smiling as she stood between her two older siblings.

“As we speak, my men are sacking Castle Mi-Amore. Their orders are to destroy everything and everyone on their path!” Cavatina gasped in horror when she realized what Chrysalis had meant. “All those you knew until this day will die tonight : the servants, the guards, the friends and guests you’ve invited, and even your sons. No one will be spared!”

“N..No..” Cavatina began to beg as Chrysalis stepped closer from her.

“When the sun rises tomorrow, Cavatina Tessitura and everything associated to her will have disappeared,” Chrysalis declared as her green magic began to encase hand.

Cavatina started sobbing in terror as she was levitated by the bright green aura that had coated her soaken dress.

“Ple...Please… Stop this!” she lamented in a pleading tone. “Killing me won’t bring you anyth…”

“Killing you would bring me an immense satisfaction,” Chrysalis interrupted with a sardonic smile, prompting the princess’ sobs to grow louder. “Don’t worry though, you’re not going to die tonight,” she added in falsely gentle tone, as her magic began to encase her own chitinous armor. “But I can assure you… It will be.so.much.worse!”

After a flick of her hand, Chrysalis’ magic violently tore Cavatina’s dress apart, leaving her with nothing but the ripped remains of undergarments and the lead braces and necklace on. At the same time, the Swarmlady’s Black Exoskeleton unfasted itself and flew away from her body to cover the now improper Princess. Cavatina tried to voice her interrogation at the fact that Chrysalis was cladding her in her own armor before it finished tying itself onto her and it blinded her with a bright flash of green.

As Chrysalis now stood in the room in a simple, long, black tunic, she watched the young girl in a simple, cornflower blue summer dress falling on the ground before her. The Swarmlady was pleased to see that the girl looked nothing like Cavatina. Her hair now reached to her lower back and had abandoned its natural light pink hue in favor of a rich brown that seemed to shine under the moonlight that filtered through the window. Her slightly dry fair skin had taken a much more appealing, dark caramel color. She looked a bit taller and a lot curvier than she had been a second ago as even the loose, long dress she could barely hide her long attractive legs and hourglass figure.

“...What did you…” the girl began to ask before stopping when she couldn’t recognize her own voice as it sounded sweeter and slightly more high-pitched than it had ever been before.

“I did what I say I would,” Chrysalis replied to the now-wrinkle free, rounder face of her interlocutor. “Cavatina Tessitura is no more,” she stated as she kneeled down to look straight in baby-blue sapphirre the girl had for eyes, such a difference compared to the dull amethysts they had been before. “You are a just a very attractive girl that has negotiated her way out of the slums to a group of very pent-up sailors by telling them she’d do anything to leave this place.” As the girl’s full lips began to quiver at the implication, Chrysalis couldn’t help herself to feel a little pang of sympathy for her. It wasn’t big enough for her to stop herself though.

“Now, come on!” Chrysalis said calmly before resting a glowing finger on the girl’s forehead. “Your rides are waiting!”

As those words left Chrysalis’ mouth, the girl’s terrorized features soothened to a more calm face as her irises blinked green in reaction to the charm the Swarmlady had cast on her. The young girl then stood up and happily strutted out of the house before heading for the docks, a small jump in her steps. Chrysalis followed the girl to the ship whose crew she had negotiated the girl’s travel before heading to the Castle hours ago.

Chrysalis watched as the transformed princess boarded the ship and immediately began to flirt with various sailors, stating loud and clear that she was more than ready to start paying for her travel. It didn’t take long for some of the more excited sailors to gather around the young girl who began to undress and dance for them to put them in the mood. It was when the naked girl was bent over a massive crate and with two now pantless sailors lined up before and behind her that Chrysalis snapped her glowing fingers to break the charm she had cast on the former princess.

Chrysalis had hated every second of her time on that ship eighteen years ago, she saw no reasons for it to be different for the woman that had caused it in the first place.

It had been so easy. As per Chrysalis’ instructions, Vigil Locust had stormed the castle with the seven hundred eighty-three Changelings right after her signal from the one of the smallest windows of the ballroom : A small burst of magic only visible for those who were clad in the Hive’s Exoskeletons.

Passing the main gate and the walls had taken them no more a minute, as most guards in station where paying attention to the numerous carriages of the Mi-Amore’s guests parked inside the courtyard. Following the orders, the invading troup sent two third of its force straight to the ballroom to deal with the the ruling family and the nobles they had invited while the rest scattered through the castle grounds to purge them from their occupants.

The Changelings barely encountered a form of resistance until Chrysalis broke the soundproofing spell she had cast in the ballroom and opened its main doors for them. And even then, it had been nothing more than a token effort. One futile attempt from the few nobles who had enough courage to fight to the death while the rest of them ran away like sheeps facing a pack of wolves.

Their fighting spirit didn’t last long and died out at the moment Vigil forced one of his blades through Prince Bolero’s heart. The young Prince’s magic had been powerful enough to pierce through the Swarmlord’s exoskeleton and seriously injured his left arm, but it hadn’t been enough to stop Vigil’s advance, and once he was within reach Bolero was done for. After that it had been a simple matter of cornering the runaways and killing them. Something that didn’t take them more than an hour.

Now, the Drones had scattered themselves throughout the castle grounds, some were on the lookout, a few were searching for something to eat or drink after a job well done, and some other were simply plundering through the Castle or looting the corpses just like Chrysalis had assured they could if they wanted to.

The sixty-four Soldiers, the eight Executioners as well as Vigil, for their part, simply waited for Chrysalis to return in the only room big and clean enough to accommodate them : the throne room. They patiently kept themselves busy until the break of dawn when the doors of the room were pushed wide open. They all stood straight when Chrysalis, clad in a simple black tunic instead of her Exoskeleton, calmly walked in.

As she walked up to Vigil, who had been staying in the center of the room, two of her Executioners moved in her direction and asked Chrysalis if she needed or wanted anything as walked past them. A brief smile and a simple shake of her head prompted her subordinates to bow and moving out of her way.

“You’re late,” Vigil commented as the green-haired woman slowly walked up to him.

“Sorry, Vigil. It turns out that the view from the docks was a lot more enjoyable than I first thought,” Chrysalis explained casually.

“And your Exoskeleton?” Vigil asked as he recognized the tunic as the one the Larvae of the Hive wore before putting on their Exoskeleton for the first time.

“I had to leave it behind,” Chrysalis replied with a noncommittal shrug, prompting surprised and confused whispers throughout the ranks of the Changelings around her. “It’s no big deal.”

“I doubt the Hive will agree in giving you a new one,” Vigil commented matter-of-factly.

“Doesn’t matter, I don’t plan on going back to ask for a new one,” Chrysalis retorted casually.

“You don’t?” Vigil asked in a surprised tone.

“No,” Chrysalis simply stated. “I have something more interesting to do now than going back to the gilded prison that we all call the Hive,” she added softly before looking at something behind the tall Swarmlord.

Vigil looked at his former protegée with a raised eyebrow as confused whispers rang through the Changelings’ ranks. Then he decided to look at what her eyes seemed to be focused on. When his deep blue eyes landed on the late Fortissimo’s throne, he turned back at her with wide eyes of stupor.

“Because of me, this country doesn’t have a ruler anymore,” Chrysalis stated matter-of-factly. “And thanks to all of you,” she added casually at her audience. “All his potential replacements are gone too.” As a few dark humored chuckles rang through the Changelings, Chrysalis continued her statement. “The opportunity is here and I’m going to take it and I strongly advise you to take it as well!”

“My Lady,” Clarion, Vigil’s second in command, called in an even tone as his fellow Executioners and Soldiers looked at the Swarmlady in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“The Mi-Amore had invited many heads of the noble families of Istalloña to yesterday’s parties,” Chrysalis reminded. “More than eighty of them responded positively to the invitation, and they died because of it… That means that, as of now, more than eighty domains, manors or castles are without masters and there are seventy-three of you,” she added slowly, waving at the crowd of dumbfounded assassins gathered around her.

A lot of shocked but interested whispers broke through the room until Mendax and one of Chrysalis’ own Executioner, a tall blonde woman named Wasp, decided to intervene.

“My Lady,” Wasp began slowly. “Those domains, manors or castles aren’t as empty as you’re implying them to be.”

“The Heads of family might be gone, but there are still the rest of their kins,” Mendax reminded slowly. “And now that they’re dead, how are we supposed to take their places without those family members noticing something is up?!”

“Mendax, I never said anything about just replacing the heads and keeping those family members,” Chrysalis stated matter-of-factly, earning a blank, surprised face from the two Executioners. “We have more than seven hundred Drones with us as well. They too deserve a reward for what they’ve accomplished during the night.” Out of all the possible replies Mendax and Wasp had expected from Chrysalis, this one was the least expected. “You disapprove?” she asked when her comment was met by nothing but a stunned silence

“I’m just surprised you’ve thought this far ahead, My Lady,” Wasp confessed slowly, her head bowed down in submission.

“Not at all!” Mendax assured with a shake of his head and an excited grin.

“In the late Prince’s office, I put the list of guests on the desk and there’s a map on the wall showcasing all of the Nobles’ domains on the Istalloñan territory,” Chrysalis declared. “I’ll let you chose amongst you where each of you wants to go!”

At those words, all the Changelings bowed their heads to the Swarmlady and the more excited of them nearly ran out of the throne room immediately after that. The rest of them went out in a slightly calmer manner while discussing between themselves what they would do if more than one of them would be interested in the same domain. As suggestions of friendly duels and ‘marriage proposals’ filled the air, the throne emptied itself bit by bit up to the point when only Chrysalis and Vigil were standing in the room.

“How are you feeling?” Chrysalis asked in a concerned tone, her green eyes focused on the bandaged right arm of the Swarmlord.

“It hurts a bit but I’ll live,” Vigil replied matter-of-factly. “The other Swarmlords will not accept that, Chrysalis.”

“I don’t care,” Chrysalis assured slowly “I’ll do things for myself as of now. No one will control my fate anymore. No more Lord to sell me away, no more Sultan to lock me in a tower for his pleasure, no more Secret Organisation to demand that I kill for it...”

"The Hive wasn't that bad to you, Chrysalis."

"I never said it was, Vigil," Chrysalis assured slowly. "I'm grateful that you brought me there but the Hive has now served its purpose to me. Time for it to only be a memory."

“You do know that the other Swarmlords will try to get rid of you?”

“Do you think they could manage that exploit if I have all our Changelings and you here to protect me?” Chrysalis asked back playfully.

“You’re that certain that I’ll stay here for you?” Vigil asked with a raised eyebrow before showing his wounded arm. "A few years ago, I would have walked out of tonight's fight unscathed. I'm not sure I'm in the condition to face the wrath of the Hive."

"I'm sure that you are. You might not want to admit it, but you can’t get enough of me, Vigil,” Chrysalis stated with confidence.

“Sadly for me that is true,” the Swarmlord admitted slowly. "Does that mean I'm your servant now and that I have to call you Princess Chrysalis?” Vigil asked with a small grin.

“You'll never be my servant, Vigil,” Chrysalis assured softly. "Never!" she repeated sternly as she left Vigil's side to head for the empty, golden framed chair. “Also, I am no weak princess like the ones that ruled before me…” she declared proudly as she sat on the very comfortable throne. “I am a Queen!” Chrysalis stated with a clear voice that displayed so much pride and authority that Vigil felt the need to kneel before her rising instantly.

“As you wish, Queen Chrysalis,” Vigil let out softly as he gave into the need and bent the knee.

Author's Note

Hey friends,

It's me, Mariacheat-Brony and, while it took me a while, I finally managed to write something.

Chrysalis finally got her revenge.
How will Cadence react to Chrysalis true origins?
All that will be known in the upcoming epilogue. (which hopefully will not take a year to write.)

I hope you've enjoyed it
Feel free to leave a comment below.

Best Regards.

PS : sorry if you received a new chapter notification last week (it was a misclick on my part)